Phosphorene: a rising star in the 2D world

Since its discovery in January 2014, phosphorene, the new 2D-material prepared by exfoliation of black phosphorus and formed only by P atoms, has attracted scientists for its fascinating electronic and optical properties.1 At variance with graphene, this new single layer material has free electron pairs onto its corrugated surface that in principle can interact with metal ions, metal-ligand fragments and organic molecules. In our labs, the surface functionalization of phosphorene with transition metal nanoparticles2 was studied, and in particular for the first time EXAFS analysis was carried out to elucidate the nature of the interaction between P atoms and metal nanoclusters. Afterwards, the application of the new nanohybrids, Pd/bP and Ni/bP, in selective catalytic hydrogenation was investigated. Acknowledgements Thanks are expressed to EC for funding the project PHOSFUN "Phosphorene functionalization: a new platform for advanced multifunctional materials" (ERC ADVANCED GRANT to M.P.). References [1] H. Liu, K. Hu, D. Yan, R. Chen, Y. Zou, H. Liu, S. Wang. Adv. Mater., 2018, 30, 1800295. [2] M. Caporali, M. Serrano-Ruiz, F. Telesio, S. Heun, G. Nicotra, C. Spinella, M. Peruzzini. Chem. Commun. 2017, 53, 10946.