Phosphorene, a new 2D Playground Challenging Chemical Functionalization

At ambient temperature and pressure, black phosphorus (BP) is the most stable and unreactive polymorphic form of elemental phosphorus. BP was discovered more than one century ago1, but, most likely due to his inertness, its chemistry was marginally explored in comparison to the white and the red phosphorus allotropes. The global interest for BP exploded in 2014, when it was demonstrated being its layered structure exfoliated forming a 2D sheet with an honeycomb hexagonal network.2 The new material was called phosphorene and it can be considered the all-P cousin of graphene for the close related affinity of the two materials. We have demonstrated that high quality phosphorene flakes could be prepared and stabilized using DMSO under sonication.3 With respect to graphene, the presence of phosphorene lone pairs on each phosphorus, should results in a higher reactivity, thus making phosphorene functionalization more feasible avoiding the harsh conditions necessary for graphene. As shown in scheme, we are going to play with phosphorene either chemically, using small molecules, nanoparticles and extended systems, either physically using the high pressure. The goal is to use functionality innovative advanced 2D materials by implanting phosphorene derivatives into different device platforms addressed to applications in material science, catalysis, microelectronics and optoelectronic devices. Our final aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of a chain-of-value based on phosphorene platform from synthesis to device realization and implementation.