The allotropes of elementary phosphorus materials, such as black phosphorus and its single layer form phosphorene have recently regained scientific attention due to their outstanding properties suitable for applications in electronics, optical devices, and energy applications. As with many other materials, there is a fundamental question of the presence of impurities in these materials and their influence on the properties. Such impurities are expected to dramatically influence the electronic and electrochemical properties of black phosphorus in a way similar to the way they do in the case of graphene. Here, we synthesize black phosphorus from commercially available red phosphorus via different techniques. We utilize high-pressure conversion of red phosphorus to black phosphorus and vapor phase growth of black phosphorus using a gold/tin alloy-like solvent for red phosphorus. We show that both methods lead to black phosphorus containing a large number of metallic impurities. We show that the classical tin-based method for preparing black phosphorus adds a significant amount of tin and that the metallic impurities present have an observable effect on the electrochemical properties of black phosphorus.

中文翻译：

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通过不同合成途径制备的黑磷纳米薄片中的金属杂质†

诸如黑磷之类的基本磷材料的同素异形体及其单层形成的磷烯，由于其出色的性能适用于电子，光学设备和能源应用，最近受到了科学的关注。与许多其他材料一样，存在一个基本问题，即这些材料中杂质的存在及其对性能的影响。预计此类杂质将以与石墨烯类似的方式极大地影响黑磷的电子和电化学性能。在这里，我们通过商业上可得的红磷通过不同的技术。我们利用类似金/锡合金的溶剂将红磷高压转化为黑磷，并利用黑磷的气相生长。我们表明，两种方法都会导致含有大量金属杂质的黑磷。我们表明，用于制备黑磷的基于锡的经典方法会添加大量的锡，并且所存在的金属杂质对黑磷的电化学性能具有可观的影响。