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The role of milling conditions on an ultrasonic-assisted ball milling exfoliation approach for fabrication of few layer MoS2 and WS2 large size sheets

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Abstract

Here, an ultrasonic-assisted ball milling exfoliation method to obtain 2D MoS2 and WS2 sheets was developed. We investigated the effect of rotational speed, milling time, and wet or dry milling agent. The yield, dimensions, and structural characteristics of the exfoliated MoS2 and WS2 sheets were investigated by different characterization techniques. To investigate the effect of ball rotation speed, samples were mixed with NaCl and milled at 150 rpm, 300 rpm, and 450 rpm for 2 h. Samples milled for 1 h, 2 h, and 4 h at 450 rpm were also prepared. Finally, the effect of the milling agent was tested milling the samples in Isopropanol. The best condition found was 2 h at 450 rpm in NaCl dry medium, with sheets of 1–4 layers with lateral size in the order of microns and showing high stable dispersions. Exfoliation yield with the best milling condition was 96% and 43% for MoS2 and WS2, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the financial support from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico—CNPq (Grant Nos. 408265/2016-7 and 311421/2021-0 and 406725/2021-7) and from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais – FAPEMIG (APQ-01929-21). We are also grateful to Araucaria Foundation by the productivity scholarship grant 068/2019 (Garcia-Basabe, Y.) We are also grateful to CEM of Federal University of ABC for HRTEM measurements.

Funding

Funding was provided by CNPq (408265/2016-7, 406725/2021-7).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ciências da Vida e da Natureza, Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana, Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná, 85866-900, Brazil

    Yunier Garcia-Basabe, Lara Marques Daminelli & Sandy González Hernández

  2. Escola de Engenharia – Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Rua da Consolação, 896, São Paulo, 01302-907, Brazil

    Matheus Suenson Cardoso & Dunieskys Roberto González Larrudé

  3. Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, 36570-900, Brazil

    Rafael Otoniel Ribeiro Rodrigues da Cunha

  4. Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas, Universidade Federal do ABC, Avenida dos Estados, 5001, Santo André, São Paulo, 09210-580, Brazil

    Lara Marques Daminelli & Jose Javier Sáez Acuña

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Contributions

LMD, SGH, JJSA, and MSC: methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization. RORRdC: supervision, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization. DRGL supervision, resources, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization YGB: conceptualization, resources, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Yunier Garcia-Basabe.

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Garcia-Basabe, Y., Daminelli, L.M., Hernández, S.G. et al. The role of milling conditions on an ultrasonic-assisted ball milling exfoliation approach for fabrication of few layer MoS2 and WS2 large size sheets. Journal of Materials Research 38, 2958–2968 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-023-01013-w

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