Rich diversity of crystallographic phase formation in 2D Rex:Mo1-xS2 (x< 0.5) alloy

TL;DR

This study reveals diverse crystallographic phases in RexMo1-xS2 alloys with x<0.5, showing how Re concentration influences structural modulation and hybridization, with potential applications in energy and devices.

Contribution

It uncovers the rich variety of phase formations and structural modulations in RexMo1-xS2 alloys as a function of Re concentration, providing new insights into their crystallography.

Findings

No super-structural modulation for x<0.23.

Super-structural modulation appears for x>0.23.

Variety of cation hybridizations observed via electron microscopy.

Abstract

We report on the observation of rich variety of crystallographic phase formation in RexMo1-xS2 alloy for x < 0.5. For x < 0.23, no low dimensional super-structural modulation is observed and inter-cation hybridization remains discrete forming dimers to tetramers with increasing Re concentration. For x > 0.23, super-strutural modulaton is observed. Depending on the Re concentrations (x = 0.23, 0.32, 0.38 and 0.45) and its distributions, various types of cation hybridization results in rich variety of low dimensional super-structural modulation as directly revealed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy. These layered alloy system may be useful for various energy and novel device applications.