Abstract
The thinnest semiconductor, molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) monolayer, exhibits promising prospects in the applications of optoelectronics and valleytronics. A uniform and highly crystalline MoS 2 monolayer in a large area is highly desirable for both fundamental studies and substantial applications. Here, utilizing various aromatic molecules as seeding promoters, a large-area, highly crystalline, and uniform MoS 2 monolayer was achieved with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at a relatively low growth temperature (650 C). The dependence of the growth results on the seed concentration and on the use of different seeding promoters is further investigated. It is also found that an optimized concentration of seed molecules is helpful for the nucleation of the MoS 2 . The newly identified seed molecules can be easily deposited on various substrates and allows the direct growth of monolayer MoS 2 on Au, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), and graphene to achieve various hybrid structures. © 2014 American Chemical Society.