Mechanical properties of freely suspended semiconducting graphene-like layers based on MoS2
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1556-276X-7-233 ; We fabricate freely suspended nanosheets of molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) which are characterized by quantitative optical microscopy and high-resolution friction force microscopy. We study the elastic deformation of freely suspended nanosheets of MoS2 using an atomic force microscope. The Young's modulus and the initial pre-tension of the nanosheets are determined by performing a nanoscopic version of a bending test experiment. MoS2 sheets show high elasticity and an extremely high Young's modulus (0.30 TPa, 50% larger than steel). These results make them a potential alternative to graphene in applications requiring flexible semiconductor materials ; This work was supported by MICINN (Spain) through the programs MAT2008-01735, MAT2011-25046 and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO-2010 'Nanociencia Molecular' CSD-2007-00010, Comunidad de Madrid through program Nanobiomagnet S2009/MAT-1726, and the European Union (FP7) through the program RODIN