Design, Synthesis and Characterisation of 1D Semiconductors

The aim of this project is to develop synthesis of 1D semiconducting materials with tuneable electronic and optical properties that can be exploited in functional electronic devices.
Nanoscale confinement is one of the most powerful methods to tune and to harness electronic properties of materials. By reducing dimensionality of the crystal lattice, it is possible to control the band gap, type and mobility of charge carriers as well as magnetic or optical properties of nanomaterials.
This project builds on a methodology of nanoscale confinement inside nanotubes, using them as nanometre-scale templates (diameter 1-2 nm) and containers for semiconducting materials, such as MoS2, TaSe2 and InSe. The metal chalcogenides have demonstrated outstanding functional properties in 2D form, and in this project we will develop methods for synthesis of these materials in 1D form. Confinement in nanotubes is expected to offer new powerful methodology for tailoring structure (e.g. interatomic distances, edge functionalisation) and composition (e.g. doping with electron donor/acceptor atoms) of the 1D semiconducting nanoribbons. Furthermore, encapsulation in nanotubes offers protection of the nanoribbons from detrimental effects of the environment (oxidation, hydrolysis, contamination), improves manoeuvrability and allows facile integration of the 1D semiconductors into functional devices, such as field effect transistors, to explore and to harness of their functional properties in sensors or data storage units.