Carbide-free one-zone sulfurization method grows thin MoS2 layers on polycrystalline CVD diamond.

The last few decades faced on the fabrication of advanced engineering materials involving also different composites. Here, we report on the fabrication of few-layer molybdenum disulfide on top of thin polycrystalline diamond substrates with a high specific surface area. In the method, pre-deposited molybdenum coatings were sulfurized in a one-zone furnace at ambient pressure. As-prepared MoS2 layers were characterized by several techniques including grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We found out that the initial thickness of Mo films determined the final c-axis crystallographic orientation of MoS2 layer as previously observed on other substrates. Even though it is well-known that Mo diffuses into diamond at elevated temperatures, the competing sulfurization applied effectively suppressed the diffusion and a chemical reaction between molybdenum and diamond. In particular, a Mo2C layer does not form at the interface between the Mo film and diamond substrate. The combination of diamond high specific surface area along with a controllable layer orientation might be attractive for applications, such as water splitting or water disinfection.