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

作为一个新成员，黑磷（BP）是继石墨烯之后二维（2D）材料领域的下一个“大东西”。但与具有零带隙的石墨烯相反，BP纳米片显示出直接的、尺寸可调的带隙，这取决于层数。这一特性使得BP在许多应用中具有吸引力，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（据MarketsAndMarkets预测，到2020年全球石墨烯市场预计将达到2.7847亿美元，2015 - 2020年增长率为42.8%），BP纳米片的市场前景不可限量。 ** 对于制备少层BP纳米片而言，机械剥离法和液相剥离法已被广泛使用。机械法的劳动密集性限制了其商业应用。至于液体剥离，它通常需要长的处理时间或具有高功率的超声波仪。然而，使用两种剥离技术，少层BP纳米片的产率仍然非常低。 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。与所有先前报道的方法相比，这种新方法导致大大提高了少层BP纳米片的产率（75%），并且大大降低了从本体BP液体剥离的持续时间（<2 h）和功率（70 W）。所制备的BP纳米片中90%以上的厚度小于10 nm。** 因此，该方法在时间、能量输入和产量方面是有效的。因此，它是相当具有成本效益的。它也是高度可重复性和易于操作。最后但并非最不重要的是，该方法还可以进一步放大用于大规模合成，这与工业应用高度相关。所有这些优势都证明了拟议的市场研究是正确的。*

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.******************