An electrochemical route to MoS2 nanosheets for device applications

•We report an electrochemical exfoliation method to mass produce MoS2 semiconducting nanosheets.•N-type field effect transistors (n-FETs) were fabricated using the electrochemically exfoliated MoS2 nanosheets.•The fabricated MoS2 nanosheets n-FETs showed a on/off current ratio of around 103 and field-effect mobility of 2 cm2/(V s) on SiO2 gate dielectrics.

This paper presents a facile electrochemical exfoliation method to mass produce device quality MoS2 semiconducting nanosheets. During the exfoliation process, anionic SO42− and OH− ions intercalate into a bulk MoS2 and they form gaseous SO2 or O2 gas bubbles which produce a separating force for MoS2 nanosheets exfoliation. Monolayer or few layers of MoS2 nanosheets were obtained on a SiO2/Si substrate. N-type field effect transistors (n-FETs) were fabricated using the exfoliated MoS2 nanosheets and these n-FETs showed excellent device characteristics. The measured on/off current ratio was around 103, the field-effect mobility on SiO2 gate dielectrics was 2 cm2/(V s).