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Molybdenum Ditelluride–New Semiconductor Material

Silicon is the most commonly used semiconductor materials. But it has two drawbacks: firstly, when the silicon coating tends to thin, its electrical property will decline; secondly, its indirect bandgap makes it difficult to apply in photovoltaic projects, which greatly limit silicon application. Therefore, many scientists are looking for new semiconductor materials. Molybdenum ditelluride is a new type semiconductor material developed by a research team of Japanese and Korean.

In fact, molybdenum ditelluride (MeTe₂) was synthesized in the 1960s, but because it can not be use in electronic device by simply form, so it has not been taken seriously until the team developed the a high purity molybdenum ditelluride, and then developed the semiconductors application. Before this, molybdenum ditelluride is mainly as a solid lubricant used in various fields. Molybdenum ditelluride having a better performance than silicon, it homojunction has high efficiency and is 10 to 50 times as silicon, in which electrons can be moved quickly. Further, it has almost the same bandgap as silicon. Therefore, it can take place of the silicon become a new type semiconductor material. The research team wants to make single layer prototype transistor by MeTe₂ is not so easy. Different with graphene, MeTe₂ to create a single atomic layer is difficult because molybdenum ditelluride has great inner interaction. So to complete molybdenum ditelluride dimensional semiconductor research need to spend more effort.

Molybdenum ditelluride is a gray hexagonal powder. Its physical and chemical properties as follows: molecular formula: MeTe₂, molecular weight: 351.14, CAS number: 12058-20-7, EINECS number: 235-028-4. It can decompose in alkali, insoluble in water, soluble in nitric acid, stable in air and in vacuum or at high temperatures can be decomposed.

Molybdenum can react with tellurium in a closed tube at high temperature environment and direct synthesis hetero-phase compounds. Specific steps are as follows: at 430 ℃molybdenum and tellurium occurs reaction to form MoTe2 (MoTex x = 1.88 ~ 2) or Mo₃Te₄. Chemical reaction equation: Mo + 2Te → MoTe₂.

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