Grooming young scientists in Singapore - Graphene Research Centre

Research work on monolayer WS2 done by Belle Sow Miaoer, a student from NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Dr Lu Junpeng (NUS) and Professor Sow Chorng Haur (NUS) was published and highlighted in the inside cover page of Advanced Optical Materials [1].

Monolayer WS2 is a promising material in optoelectronic devices. Decoration of WS2 using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) produces surprising results. AuNPs exhibit preferential, site-selective decorations that reveal hidden heterogeneity within the WS2. In addition, the AuNPs enhance fluorescence intensity in selected regions and even activate fluorescence emission from previously dark regions. The photoluminescence spectra become sharpened and dominated by neutral excitons.

This is not the first case where young scientists publish cutting edge research on 2D materials in high impact factor journals. Three of the authors of a recent ACS Nano publication [2], Ashwin Venkatakrishnan, Hou Chua, and Pinxi Tan, are also students from NUS High School of Mathematics and Science.

It will certainly not be the last.

[1] B. M. Sow, J. Lu, H. Liu, K. E. J. Goh, C. H. Sow, Advanced Optical Materials 2017, 5, 1700156
[2] A. Venkatakrishnan, H. Chua, P. Tan, Z. Hu, H. Liu, Y. Liu, A. Carvalho, J. Lu, and C. H. Sow, ACS Nano 2017 11 (1), 713-720