Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Materials

Manganese thiophosphite joins 2-D materials club

Ultrathin flakes provide opportunity to probe antiferromagnetism

by Mitch Jacoby
October 30, 2017 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 95, Issue 43

[+]Enlarge
Credit: ACS Nano
MnPS3, an antiferromagnetic material, has been prepared as atomically thin flakes.
Mn is pink; S is yellow; P is gray.

This image depicts the lattice structure of MnPS3.
Credit: ACS Nano
MnPS3, an antiferromagnetic material, has been prepared as atomically thin flakes.
Mn is pink; S is yellow; P is gray.


Examples of materials measuring just a few atoms thick have been popping up so quickly in recent years that many categories of materials now have several members in the two-dimensional materials club. The list includes organics, inorganics, and single-element varieties representing a large group of electrical conductors, insulators, and semiconductors with impressive mechanical, thermal, and optical properties. Magnetic members were noticeably absent until just a few months ago, when two chromium compounds joined. The two lone magnetic members have now been joined by a third one—manganese thiophosphite, MnPS3 (ACS Nano 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b05856). Similar to refrigerator magnets, the chromium compounds are ferromagnetic, meaning their magnetic moments, or spins, point in the same direction. MnPS3 is a 2-D antiferromagnetic material: The up and down orientations of its spins alternate from one atomic site to the next. Gen Long and Ning Wang of Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and coworkers synthesized flakes of the compound as thin as two atomic layers from a mixture of the elemental powders via a high-temperature method. For now, the ultrathin material provides mainly a means to probe antiferromagnetism in 2-D. In the future, these kinds of materials may be used in cloaking applications that make magnetic data-storage devices and their data invisible.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.