title: Two-dimensional antimonene single crystals grown by van der Waals epitaxy.
abstract: Unlike the unstable black phosphorous, another two-dimensional group-VA material, antimonene, was recently predicted to exhibit good stability and remarkable physical properties. However, the synthesis of high-quality monolayer or few-layer antimonenes, sparsely reported, has greatly hindered the development of this new field. Here, we report the van der Waals epitaxy growth of few-layer antimonene monocrystalline polygons, their atomical microstructure and stability in ambient condition. The high-quality, few-layer antimonene monocrystalline polygons can be synthesized on various substrates, including flexible ones, via van der Waals epitaxy growth. Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy reveal that the obtained antimonene polygons have buckled rhombohedral atomic structure, consistent with the theoretically predicted most stable β-phase allotrope. The very high stability of antimonenes was observed after aging in air for 30 days. First-principle and molecular dynamics simulation results confirmed that compared with phosphorene, antimonene is less likely to be oxidized and possesses higher thermodynamic stability in oxygen atmosphere at room temperature. Moreover, antimonene polygons show high electrical conductivity up to 104S m-1and good optical transparency in the visible light range, promising in transparent conductive electrode applications.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.|Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Xiufeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.|Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Jizi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.|Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Chengxue
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.|Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Shengli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Mircro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Key Laboratory of Artificial Mircro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors.forename: Wenhui
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
authors.forename: Zhenhua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrated Science and Engineering &Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.|National Laboratory of Solid-State Microstructures and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Yufeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Optoelectronics &Nanomaterials, Key Laboratory of Advanced Display Materials and Devices (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.|Herbert Gleiter Institute of Nanoscience, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0260-1059
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zeng