Biofunctional few-layer metal dichalcogenides and related heterostructures produced by direct aqueous exfoliation using phospholipids.

We report a novel, inexpensive and green method for preparing aqueous dispersions of various biofunctional transition-metal dichalcogenides (MoS 2 , WS 2 , TiS 2 and MoSe 2 ) and their related heterostructures directly via ultrasonic exfoliation mediated by the presence of phospholipids. The dispersions predominantly consist of few-layer flakes coated with 1,2-dioleoyl- sn-glycero -3-phosphocholine (DOPC), as confirmed by Raman, photoluminescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The phospholipid coating renders the flakes biofunctional, which coupled with the unique properties of transition-metal dichalcogenides and their heterostructures, suggests this method will have great potential in biological applications.