Mechanism of bismuth telluride exfoliation in an ionic liquid solvent.

Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) is a well-known thermoelectric material that has a layered crystal structure. Exfoliating Bi2Te3 to produce two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets is extremely important because the exfoliated nanosheets possess unique properties, which can potentially revolutionize several material technologies such as thermoelectrics, heterogeneous catalysts, and infrared detectors. In this work, ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C4mim]Cl) is used to exfoliate Bi2Te3 nanoplatelets.