title: Fabrication of flexible and freestanding zinc chalcogenide single layers.
abstract: Inorganic graphene analogues (IGAs) are a conceptually new class of materials with attractive applications in next-generation flexible and transparent nanodevices. However, their species are only limited to layered compounds, and the difficulty in extension to non-layered compounds hampers their widespread applicability. Here we report the fabrication of large-area freestanding single layers of non-layered ZnSe with four-atomic thickness, using a strategy involving a lamellar hybrid intermediate. Their surface distortion, revealed by means of synchrotron radiation X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, is shown to give rise to a unique electronic structure and an excellent structural stability, thus determining an enhanced solar water splitting efficiency and photostability. The ZnSe single layers exhibit a photocurrent density of 2.14 mA cm(-2) at 0.72 V versus Ag/AgCl under 300 W Xe lamp irradiation, 195 times higher than that of bulk counterpart. This work opens the door for extending atomically thick IGAs to non-layered compounds and holds promise for a wealth of innovative applications.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
authors.forename: Yongfu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhihu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Junyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piao
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Changzheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shuanglin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Shiqiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xie