MoS2–OH Bilayer-Mediated Growth of Inch-Sized Monolayer MoS2 on Arbitrary Substrates

Due to remarkable electronic property, optical transparency and mechanical flexibility, monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been demonstrated to be promising for electronic and optoelectronic devices. To date, the growth of high-quality and large-scale monolayer MoS2 has been one of the main challenges for practical applications. Here we present a MoS2-OH bilayer mediated method that can fabricate inch-sized monolayer MoS2 on arbitrary substrates. This approach relies on a layer of hydroxide groups (-OH) that are preferentially attached to the (001) surface of MoS2 to form MoS2-OH bilayer structure for growth of large area of monolayer MoS2 during the growth process. Specifically, the hydroxide layer impedes vertical growth of MoS2 layers along the [001] zone axis, promoting the monolayer growth of MoS2, constrains growth of the MoS2 monolayer only in lateral direction into larger area, and effectively reduces sulfur vacancy and defects according to density functional theory calculations. Finally, t...