A Facile Route of Two-Dimensional Metal Oxide Nanosheets Fabrication by Atomic Layer Deposition

Abstract In this study, two-dimensional nanosheets are fabricated by atomic layer deposition with sacrificial polymers. This method enables to fabricate free thin nanosheets with thickness of nanoscale. In the preparation, TiO2 and ZrO2 metal oxides are deposited onto substrates of Polyacrylic acid and Polyvinyl alcohol acted as sacrificial substrates. By dissolving the substrate, free-thin sheets layer with a high aspect ratio can be achieved due to the exfoliation mechanism. It was shown that the 2D nanosheets can be successfully formed on the deposited ALD material layer which can withstand the emergence of interfacial stress in the region of ALD layer – sacrificial substrate. The achieved nanosheets are characterized by using AFM, which shows that the thickness of both TiO2 and ZrO2 nanosheets are ∼ 80 nm which formed with 1000 and 600 ALD cycles, respectively. The 2D nanosheets obtained in this study have potential applications for photocatalysis, water splitting, and lithium ion battery.