Market study of effective synthesis of few-layer black phosphorous nanosheets

作为新成员，黑磷（BP）成为继石墨烯之后二维材料领域的下一个“大事件”。但与石墨烯的零带隙相反，BP纳米片显示出直接的、大小可调的带隙，这取决于层数。这一特性使得BP对许多应用具有吸引力，特别是在电子领域，因为它克服了石墨烯在电子领域的关键挑战。考虑到石墨烯的巨大市场（到2020年，全球石墨烯市场预计将达到27847万美元，根据MarketsAndMarkets的数据，2015年至2020年的增长率为42.8%），BP纳米片的市场前景是无限的。**对于制备少层BP纳米片，机械剥离法和液体剥离法已被广泛使用。机械法的劳动密集型限制了其商业化应用。对于液体去角质，通常需要较长的处理时间或高功率的超声波。然而，两种剥离技术的低层BP纳米片收率仍然很低。** INRS的研究人员最近发明并开发了一种新颖的、时间有效的剥离方法来制备少层BP纳米片。与之前报道的所有方法相比，这种新方法大大提高了少层BP纳米片的产率（75%），并且大大缩短了从大块BP中剥离液体的持续时间（<2h）和功率（70 W）。90%以上的BP纳米片厚度小于10nm，因此该方法在时间、能量投入和收率方面都是有效的。因此，它是相当划算的。它还具有高度可重复性和易于操作性。最后但并非最不重要的是，该方法还可以进一步扩大大规模合成，这与工业应用高度相关。所有这些优点都证明了所提议的市场研究的合理性。******************

As a new member, black phosphorus (BP) emerges as the next "big thing" following graphene in the world of 2-dimensional (2D) materials. But contrary to graphene that has a zero bandgap, BP nanosheets show a direct, size-tunable bandgap, depending on the number of layers. This feature makes BP attractive for many applications, in particular in electronics, as it overcomes the key challenge of graphene in electronics. Considering the huge market of graphene (the global graphene market is expected to reach USD 278.47 Million by 2020, with a growth rate of 42.8% from 2015 to 2020 according to MarketsAndMarkets), the market prospect of BP nanosheets is limitless. ** For the preparation of few-layer BP nanosheets, the mechanical and liquid exfoliation methods from bulk BP have been extensively used. The labor intensive nature of the mechanical method restricts its commercial application. As for the liquid exfoliation, it normally requires long processing time or a sonicator with high power. Howbeit the yield of few-layer BP nanosheets is still very low with both techniques of exfoliation.** Researchers at INRS have recently invented and developed a novel, time-effective exfoliation method to prepare few-layer BP nanosheets. This new method leads to the greatly improved yield (75%) of few-layer BP nanosheets, and largely reduced duration (<2h) and power (70 W) for liquid exfoliation from bulk BP, as compared to all the previously reported methods. Over 90% of the obtained BP nanosheets have the thickness of less than 10 nm. ** The method is thus effective in time, energy inputs and yield. Therefore, it is quite cost-effective. It is also highly reproducible and easily operatable. Last but not least, the method can also be further scaled up for large-scale synthesis, which is highly relevant for industry applications. All these advantages justify the proposed market study.******************