Humidity Sensing and Photodetection Behavior of Electrochemically Exfoliated Atomically Thin-Layered Black Phosphorus Nanosheets

Abstract

Recent investigations on two-dimensional black phosphorus material mainly highlight work on few atomic layers and multilayers. It is still unknown if the black phosphorus atomically thin sheet is an ideal structure for the enhanced gas-solid interactions due to its large surface area. To further investigate this concern, we have synthesized few atomic layer thick nanosheets of black phosphorus using an electrochemical exfoliation method. The surface morphology and thickness of the nanosheet were identified using AFM, TEM, and Raman spectroscopy. The black phosphorus nanosheet thick film device was used for the gas sensing application with exposure to different humidites. Further, the few layer black phosphorus nanosheet based transistor shows good mobility and on/off ratio. The UV light irradiation on the black phosphorus nanosheet shows good response time. The overall results show that the few layer thick film of black phosphorus nanosheets sample exhibits creditable sensitivity and better recovery time to be used in humidity sensor and photodetector applications.