Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) are surface-localized, oscillating hot electrons generated by the interaction between light and plasmonic nanomaterials. Currently, the most widely used plasmonic materials are Au and Ag, which exhibit LSPR in the visible and near infrared region. If ultraviolet plasmonic materials were standardized, this would open up new possibilities in fields including LSPR catalysis and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).
Recent work by a researchers from the University of Padova reported the synthesis of spherical Rh colloidal nanoparticles which sport well-defined LSPR in the ultraviolet region. Obtaining spherical Rh nanoparticles is challenging due to the preferred FCC crystal structure of Rh. Previous methods for the synthesis of spherical Rh nanoparticles were limited to the creation of particles with diameters within 7 nm, which only showed a weak plasmonic response. As shown in Fig. 1A-C, in this work, the researchers used laser ablation to create spherical Rh nanoparticles with diameters ranging between 20-45 nm. Moreover, since this approach of generating nanoparticles did not involve the use of any chemical ligands, this left the surface of the product particles accessible for the adsorption of ligand molecules which could be used to enhance colloidal stability or to provide additional functionality. To demonstrate this, the researchers functionalized the surface of the Rh nanoparticles with mercaptopropionic acid which interacted with metal ions, such as Cd (II), to induce agglomeration and in turn a change in the LSPR properties of the Rh colloid (Fig. 1D-E). As shown in Fig. 1F, the extent of agglomeration depended on the concentration of the metal ion, which allowed quantitative analysis of the concentration of metal ions in solution to be achieved. The surface accessibility of the Rh nanoparticles is also useful in facilitating the adsorption of analyte molecules for SERS analysis. By taking advantage of this property, the researchers demonstrated SERS detection of dyes, thiols and DNA using laser irradiation at 458 nm (Fig. 1G).
Fig 1 (A) Schematic illustrations of the synthesis of spherical Rh nanoparticles via laser ablation. (B-C) Transmission microscopy image of Rh nanoparticles ca. 45 nm in diameter and their LSPR response. (D) Schematic illustrations showing mercaptopropionic (MPA) functionalized Rh particles acting as LSPR optical sensors for metal ions. (E-F) The optical response of MPA-Rh colloids at different Cd(II) concentrations and for different metal ions in water. (G) SERS spectra of DNA, benzenethiol (BT), nitrothiolphenol (NTP), crystal violet (CV) and rhodamine B (RB) obtained using Rh nanoparticles as the enhancing substrate. Reproduced from DOI: 10.1039/d4nh00449c with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Another useful feature of the Rh nanoparticles is their improved stability in harsh conditions compared to Au and Ag nanoparticles, which for example could open new possibilities in operando SERS studies of catalytic processes that take place in pyrolysis. As shown in Fig. 2A, the Rh nanoparticles retained their structure when treated with aqua regia while Ag and Au nanoparticles were dissolved completely. Similarly, the Rh nanoparticles were found to be stable when heated to 500 ℃, while Au nanoparticles melted at this temperature (Fig. 2B).
Fig. 2 Scanning electron microscopy images of thiolated polyethylene glycol (PEG-SH) functionalized Rh and Au nanoparticles (NPs) before and after being treated with aqua regia (A) or 500 ℃ air (B). Reproduced from DOI: 10.1039/d4nh00449c with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
In summary, spherical Rh colloidal nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 20-45 nm were created via laser ablation. Compared to conventional Au and Ag plasmonic nanoparticles, the Rh nanoparticles shown in this work exhibited well-defined LSPR in the ultraviolet region and high stability under harsh experimental conditions. This unique combination of properties broadens the applications of plasmonics and provides the tools for performing operando SERS studies in harsh conditions in which traditional plasmonic materials fail.
To find out more, please read:
Rhodium nanospheres for ultraviolet and visible plasmonics
David Muñeton Arboleda, Vito Coviello, Arianna Palumbo, Roberto Pilot and Vincenzo Amendola
Nanoscale Horiz., 2025, Advance Article
About the blogger
Yikai Xu is a tenure-track professor at East China University of Science and Technology. Before this he was a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow (PI) at Queen’s University Belfast. Dr Xu was the recipient of the 2019 Kathleen Lonsdale Royal Irish Academy Prize for the most outstanding PhD research in chemical science in Ireland. He is recognized as an “Emerging Investigator” by the Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Analyst. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for Carbon Capture Science & Technology, a Community Board member for Nanoscale Horizons and an Early Career Editor for Nano Materials Science. Dr Xu’s research interest lies in surface chemistry, SERS, and the bottom-up synthesis of surface-accessible plasmonic nanomaterials. |
Emerging Investigator Series
Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series
Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Dr Mita Dasog, Dalhousie University, Canada!
Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.
We launched our Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal and regularly select a recently published Communication article to feature in an interview-style Editorial article with the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.
We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigator, Dr Mita Dasog, Dalhousie University, Canada
| Dr Mita Dasog (she/her), FRSC, is an Associate Professor and Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Research Chair in the Department of Chemistry at Dalhousie University. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan, and then moved to the University of Alberta to begin her PhD studies with Professor Jonathan Veinot, where she focused on the syntheses, properties, and applications of silicon quantum dots. After a short stay at the Technical University of Munich as a Green Talents visiting scholar, Dr Dasog went on to hold an NSERC postdoctoral position with Professor Nathan Lewis at the California Institute of Technology, where she studied light–material interactions. Currently, her research group focuses on the development of photocatalysts, electrocatalysts, and refractory plasmonic nanostructures for water treatment and clean hydrogen production. She co-leads the Green Hydrogen Research Cluster at Dalhousie University and is an elected member of the Global Young Academy and the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists. Mita and her team’s contributions have been recognized with many awards and honors, including selection as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Negative Emissions Scialog Fellow, and recognition as a top Canadian Water Shero by the Office of the Chief Scientist to the Prime Minister of Canada. |
Read our interview with Mita here
Congratulations to Dr Mita Dasog for her excellent work! You can read her featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access.
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We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!
Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.
Community Board Picks
Fluorescent reporters are invaluable tools for biomedical research like cell imaging, sensing or tracking analysis. In particular, the fluorescent labelling of nanomaterials remains a critical step in the development and evaluation of candidate nanomedicines. Being commercial fluorophores rather costly and fixed to a single emission, alternative strategies to produce labelled nanomaterials with tunable emission colour are highly coveted.
In a recent paper (DOI: 10.1039/d4nh00400k), Wang, Qi, et al. reported the versatile assembly of organic nanoparticles with adjustable emission wavelength by the enzymatic oxidation of the protected aminoacid N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-L-tyrosine. The biocatalytic oxidation of this aminoacid iduces its polymerisation into a variety of condensation products, which can co-assemble with unprotected aminoacids added post-polymerisation to generate nanoparticles ranging 5 to 10 nm in diameter. Interestingly, depending on the fed aminoacid post-polymerisation, the fluorescence spectra of the afforded nanoparticles could be shifted across the whole visible range. The fluorescent properties of these nanoparticles arise from the aggregation-induced emission of their constituent aminoacids, with different restrictions in bond rotation -and hence emission colour- for each nanoparticle formulation. Indeed, molecular dynamics simulations supported the aggregation mechanism and fixation of bond rotation, which together explain the assembly of these emissive nanoparticles.
The authors also demonstrated the excellent biocompatibility of these nanostructures in vitro and tracked their uptake by HeLa cells by confocal laser scanning microscopy. These results prove the great potential of this versatile technology to produce nanoparticles for biomedicine with tailored fluorescence from biomolecular precursors.
Overall, this paper lays down the basis for a new nanoparticle assembly platform with customisable fluorescence properties and excellent biocompatibility. The simplicity and modularity of this approach can make a strong impact on fluorescent nanotecnology, specially in the areas of drug delivery and cell taffick analysis, with broad application in the wider field of biomedicine.
Fig. 1 (a) Nanoparticle preparation scheme: sequential enzymatic oxidation of Boc-Try-OH into a reactive product that generates polymers, which can be doped with free aminoacids to form fluorescent nanoparticles. (b) Cryo-TEM and (c) AFM images of the afforded nanoparticles. (d) Visible emission of different nanoparticle formulations irradiated at 365 nm. Adapted from https://doi.org/10.1039/d4nh00400k with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry.
To find out more, please read:
Full-color peptide-based fluorescent nanomaterials assembled under the control of amino acid doping
Yuhe Shen, Yulin Sun, Yaoyu Liang, Xiaojian Xu, Rongxin Su, Yuefei Wang and Wei Qi
Nanoscale Horiz., 2024, Advance Article
About the blogger
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Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Mohammad H. Malakooti
Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series
Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Mohammad H. Malakooti (University of Washington , Seattle)!
Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.
We launched our Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal and regularly select a recently published Communication article to feature in an interview-style Editorial article with the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.
We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigator, Mohammad H. Malakooti (University of Washington , Seattle) !
 Dr. Mohammad H. Malakooti is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington – Seattle. He leads the iMatter Lab, a research group dedicated to creating materials that match the extraordinary adaptability, rich multi-functionality, and embodied intelligence of natural material systems. He received his PhD at the University of Florida in 2015, had a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan (2015-2017), and was a Research Scientist at Carnegie Mellon University (2017-2019). |
Read our interview with Mohammad here
Congratulations to Dr. Mohammad H. Malakooti for his excellent work! You can read his featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access until the end of May 2024.
Green synthesis of iron-doped graphene quantum dots: an efficient nanozyme for glucose sensingXinqi Li, Guanyou Lin, Lijun Zhou , Octavia Prosser Mohammad H. Malakooti, and Miqin Zhang
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We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!
Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.
Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Dr Valentina Castagnola!
Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series
Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Dr Valentina Castagnola, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy !
Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.
We launched our Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal and regularly select a recently published Communication article to feature in an interview-style Editorial article with the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.
We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigator, Dr Valentina Castagnola, Italian Institute of Technology, Italy
 Dr Valentina Castagnola graduated with a Masters in Photochemistry and Molecular Materials, obtaining “cum laude” from the University of Bologna. In 2014, she earned a PhD in Micro and Nano Systems working at one of the laboratories of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse, France. Her thesis focused on the development of soft implantable devices for recording neuronal signals and was awarded the best thesis prize by the GEETS (Génie Electrique, Electronique, Télécommunications et Santé) doctoral school. Then, she moved to Dublin to work at the “Center for Bionano Interactions” a Center of Excellence led by Prof. Kenneth Dawson and located at University College Dublin, Ireland. Here, she specialized in the study of interactions between different nanoscale materials and the human biological environment, to foster the development of new therapeutic solutions based on nanomedicine. She is currently a researcher at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and at the IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino in Genoa, Italy, where she pursues her research based on the study of the blood–brain barrier and the development of biomimetic systems as an innovative therapeutic platform for neurodegenerative diseases. In 2020 she was awarded the prestigious “Roche for Research” award. |
Read our interview with Valentina here
Congratulations to Dr Valentina Castagnola for her excellent work! You can read his featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access.
Sources of biases in the in vitro testing of nanomaterials: the role of the biomolecular corona Valentina Castagnola, Valeria Tomati, Luca Boselli, Clarissa Braccia,e Sergio Decherchi, Pier Paolo Pompa, Nicoletta Pedemonte, Fabio Benfenati and Andrea Armirotti. |
We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!
Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.
Congratulations to our Emerging Investigator, Pengzhan Sun
Nanoscale Horizons Emerging Investigator Series
Congratulations to our latest Emerging Investigator Pengzhan Sun, University of Macau, China!
Since the launch of Nanoscale Horizons, the journal has had a clear vision to publish exceptionally high-quality work whilst acting as a resource to researchers working at all career levels. We continue to be impressed by the quality of the research published and at the same time are looking for new ways of recognising and promoting the outstanding authors behind articles published in the journal.
We launched our Emerging Investigator Series to showcase the exceptional work published by early-career researchers in the journal and regularly select a recently published Communication article to feature in an interview-style Editorial article with the corresponding author. We hope that the series will also benefit the nanoscience community by highlighting the exciting work being done by its early-career members.
We are excited to share our latest Emerging Investigator, Pengzhan Sun, University of Macau, China !
 Dr Pengzhan Sun is an assistant professor at the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering, University of Macau. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and automation (2012) and PhD in materials science and engineering (2016), from Tsinghua University. From 2016 to 2022, he was a research associate working at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and National Graphene Institute (NGI) at the University of Manchester. His research interests include the fundamental understanding of molecular transport under confinement, the synthesis and processing of 2D crystals building blocks and their rationally designed assemblies for emerging technologies in the environment, energy, informatics, etc. He has published many papers as first/corresponding author in journals including Nature, PNAS, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Nanoscale Horizons, etc. Also, he has been awarded important prizes including the MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35 (China), Materials Research Society (MRS, USA) Graduate Student Award (Silver), NSFC Excellent Young Scientist Fund, etc. |
Read our interview with Pengzhan here
Congratulations to Dr. Pengzhan Sun for his excellent work! You can read his featured Emerging Investigator article from Nanoscale Horizons below, which is free to access.
 Catalytic selectivity of nanorippled graphene Yu Liu, Wenqi Xiong, Achintya Bera, Yu Ji,a Miao Yu,a Shi Chen, Li Lin, Shengjun Yuan and Pengzhan Sun Nanoscale Horiz., 2024, DOI: 10.1039/D3NH00462G |
We hope you enjoy reading our interview and featured article and are looking forward to sharing our future Emerging Investigators with you!
Do you publish innovative nanoscience and nanotechnology research? Submit your latest work to Nanoscale Horizons now. If you are eligible for the Emerging Investigators series, you could be considered to feature in one of our future interviews! Find out more about the eligibility criteria and the process in this editorial introducing the series.
Our new Editorial Board member, Mark MacLachlan
Join us in welcoming our new Editorial Board member, Mark MacLachlan!
We are delighted to welcome Mark MacLachlan as a new Scientific Editor to Nanoscale Horizons ! Mark’s expertise will support us to better inform editorial decisions on Nanoscale Horizons.
Mark MacLachlan, The University of British Columbia, Canada
“I look forward to seeing the exciting science underway by colleagues around the globe in the field of nanomaterials.” Mark MacLachlan is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Supramolecular Materials and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He obtained his BSc degree in chemistry from UBC in 1995 and his PhD degree in inorganic materials chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1999. Following a 2-year postdoc at MIT, he returned to UBC to begin as an assistant professor in 2001. In 2009-2010, he spent a sabbatical year as a Humboldt Fellow at the RWTH in Aachen and he was a JSPS Invited Fellow at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) in Tsukuba, Japan in 2013. Since 2016, he has served as an international PI at the Nano Life Science Institute in Kanazawa. Mark’s research interests span different areas of supramolecular and materials chemistry, especially coordination chemistry, macrocycles, graphene oxide photonic materials and cellulose nanocrystal-based materials. |
Congratulations to the winners of the RSC poster prize at the 22nd International Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium
The 22nd International Nanomedicine and Drug Delivery Symposium took place in Orlando, Florida, USA from 13–15 September 2024. Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale and Nanoscale Advances were delighted to support poster prizes at the event and we would like to congratulate our winners! You can find out more about the event in the overview on the NanoDDS website.
Learn more about our poster prize awardees below:
 Colin Basham (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA)
Poster Title: “Poly(2-oxazoline) Polymers to Improve Lipid Nanoparticle-Based Drug Delivery” Colin Basham received his PhD from the University of Tennessee in Spring 2023 and is now a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Kabanov’s lab at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He studies how the replacement of PEGylated lipids with other polymers can reduce unwanted effects and enhance the targeting properties of lipid nanoparticles for drug delivery.
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 Maria Rincon-Benavides (Ohio State University, USA)
Poster Title: “Designed Extracellular Vesicles Loaded with NF1 Nucleic Acid as a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Neurofibromatosis Type 1” Maria Rincon-Benavides received a bachelor’s degree in biology science from the Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas in Bogota, Colombia. Having recently graduated with a Ph.D in Biophysics at Ohio State University, Maria is a post-doctoral fellow at the biomedical engineering department at Ohio State University. Maria’s research primarily focuses on designing Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) as a therapeutic strategy for regenerative medicine, with main projects focusing on designing EVs as therapeutic agents for Neurofibromatosis type 1, lung therapies, lower back pain, brain inflammation, and skin ischemia. |
 Kevin Smith (University of Florida, USA)
Talk Title: “Re-engineering REGvac for Rheumatoid Arthritis Immunotherapy” Kevin Smith is a third-year PhD in the Lewis lab at the University of Florida. Kevin’s research focuses on the optimization of a regulatory vaccine to treat autoimmune diseases effectively. Due to global immunosuppression caused by current treatments for these diseases, patients are more susceptible to infectious diseases and malignancies. This vulnerability to infections amidst the current pandemic warrants special concerns for patients. With this reengineering, they seek to modify the phenotype of immune cells by utilizing biomaterial attributes and administering immune modulators. |
Welcoming our new Editorial Board member, Xiaohui Qiu.
Join us in welcoming our new Editorial Board member, Xiaohui Qiu!
We are delighted to welcome Xiaohui Qiu as a new Scientific Editor to Nanoscale Horizons ! Xiaohui’s expertise will support us to better inform editorial decisions on Nanoscale Horizons.
Xiaohui Qiu, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), China
“I’m excited to contribute to the dissemination of cutting-edge research through this esteemed journal. I look forward to collaborating with authors to enhance the quality and impact of their work, promoting innovative findings that will push the boundaries of knowledge”
Xiaohui Qiu is a professor at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), China. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2000. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Irvine, and became a visiting scientist at IBM Research Center in Yorktown Heights and Ohio State University before joining NCNST in 2006. His research interests include advancing scanning probe microscopy and optical spectroscopy techniques to study various properties of low-dimensional materials, down to single molecules and atoms. He has published more than 190 papers in peer-reviewed journals. |
Congratulations to the winners of the RSC poster prize winners at the 2nd Sino-German Workshop on Optical Spectroscopy of van der Waals Semiconductors
The 2nd Sino-German Workshop on Optical Spectroscopy of van der Waals Semiconductors took place in Ettal Abbey, Germany, from 2–5 October 2024. Nanoscale Horizons, Nanoscale, Nanoscale Advances and Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) were delighted to support poster prizes at the event and we would like to congratulate our winners! You can find out more about the event in the overview on the Lupton group website.
 Photos of the poster prizes being awarded by conference organisers Kai-Qiang Lin and John Lupton to Andreas Beer (left) and Yao Lu (right).
Learn more about our poster prize awardees below: |
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Poster title: “Proximity-induced exchange interaction in MoSe2/CrSBr van-der-Waals heterostructure with orthogonal spin textures” Andreas Beer completed his BSc studying ultrathin superconductors and his MSc on topological insulators under the guidance of Prof. Ruppert Huber at the University of Regensburg. He is now finishing his PhD at the same university under the supervision of Prof. Christian Schüller. His PhD research focuses on ultrafast temporal dynamics in semiconducting van-der-Waals heterostructures, with a particular emphasis on spin dynamics to explore the fundamental interactions in these advanced materials. Currently, he is investigating the interaction between MoSe₂, which shows out-of-plane spin-valley locking, and CrSBr, an in-plane antiferromagnet, both exhibit large exciton binding energies. When combined they create a unique system with orthogonal spin textures.
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 Yao Lu (Xiamen University, China)
Poster title: “Bilayer MoS2 interlayer intersubband transition” Yao Lu received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Zhejiang Normal University. She is currently in the second year of her Ph.D. studies under the supervision of Prof. Kai-Qiang Lin in the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University. Her current research focuses on exploring novel electronic excitations and excitonic transitions in van der Waals semiconductors, with the aim of developing innovative optoelectronic devices. Her presentation shows a previously unreported interlayer intersubband transition in bilayer MoS2. This discovery has significant implications, as it provides insight into the spin-orbit splitting energy in MoS2 and shows promise for potential application in infrared detection. |
