Charge conduction and relaxation in MoS2 nanoflakes synthesized by simple solid state reaction

We present the synthesis of crystalline MoS2 nanoflakes through self-exfoliation in a simple solid state reaction at temperature ∼650 °C. X-ray diffraction and Transmission Electron Microscope analysis indicate the formation of pure hexagonal phase MoS2 nanoflakes. Impedance and modulus plane plots from 20 Hz to 2 MHz show two relaxations associated with bulk and interface phases at temperatures from 180 K to 280 K. The conductivity obeys Mott's 2D variable-range hopping phenomenon and density of localized states ∼3.42 × 1019 eV-1 cm−3 is extracted.