Molybdenum disulfide is a material similar to graphite, very abundant on Earth and that has been revealed as one of the keys to the future of flexible electronics, presenting better performances than the organic semiconductors used so far. Now a Spanish and Dutch research group has studied the mechanical properties of this material in a pioneering work published in the journal Advanced Materials.
To study this promising material, scientists from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Technological University of Delft (Netherlands) created sheets up to one hundred thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper and studied its behavior with an atomic force microscope . With it they were able to determine the force necessary to deform the membrane and break it. According to the scientists’ work, molybdenum disulfide nanosheets are up to 50 percent harder than steel with the peculiarity that they are “surprisingly flexible.”
These properties open a world of possibilities for the electronics of the future, because using plastics as substrates, ultra-thin layers of compounds such as molybdenum disulfide or graphene can act better than current semiconductors. In addition, as indicated by the Autonomous University, its applications are not only limited to packaging and magazines with flexible screens, but it could also be used to create versatile sensors such as to control the structural damage of a building or attached to clothing to monitor patients.
Molybdenum disulfide comes from molybdenite, a very abundant mineral similar to graphite in both appearance and feel, which occurs in high-temperature hydrothermal mineral deposits.
