Exfoliation solvent dependent plasmon resonances in two-dimensional sub-stoichiometric molybdenum oxide nanoflakes

Few-layer two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum oxide nanoflakes are exfoliated using a grinding assisted liquid phase sonication exfoliation method. The sonication process is carried out in five different mixtures of water with both aprotic and protic solvents. We found that surface energy and solubility of mixtures play important roles in changing the thickness, lateral dimension, and synthetic yield of the nanoflakes. We demonstrate an increase in proton intercalation in 2D nanoflakes upon simulated solar light exposure. This results in substoichiometric flakes and a subsequent enhancement in free electron concentrations, producing plasmon resonances. Two plasmon resonance peaks associated with the thickness and the lateral dimension axes are observable in the samples, in which the plasmonic peak positions could be tuned by the choice of the solvent in exfoliating 2D molybdenum oxide. The extinction coefficients of the plasmonic absorption bands of 2D molybdenum oxide nanoflakes in all samples are found to be high (Îμ > 109 L mol-1 cm-1). It is expected that the tunable plasmon resonances of 2D molybdenum oxide nanoflakes presented in this work can be used in future electronic, optical, and sensing devices.