At present, the technological groundwork of atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) hetero-layered structures realized by successive thin film epitaxial growth is in principle constrained by lattice matching prerequisite as well as low yield and expensive production. Here, we artificially coordinate ultrathin 2D hetero-layered metal chalcogenides via a highly scalable self-surface charge exfoliation and electrostatic coupling approach. Specifically, bulk metal chalcogenides are spontaneously exfoliated into ultrathin layers in a surfactant/intercalator-free medium, followed by unconstrained electrostatic coupling with a dissimilar transition metal dichalcogenide, MoSe₂, into scalable hetero-layered hybrids. Accordingly, surface and interfacial-dominated photocatalysis reactivity is used as an ideal testbed to verify the reliability of diverse 2D ultrathin hetero-layered materials that reveal high visible-light photoreactivity, efficient charge transfer and intimate contact interface for stable cycling and storage purposes. Such a synthetic approach renders independent thickness and composition control anticipated to advance the development of ‘design-and-build’ 2D layered heterojunctions for large-scale exploration and applications.

This article presents studies on nanoindentation creep for polymeric materials at room temperature. A semi-empirical method has been established from a generalized Kelvin model. This model includes the elastic-viscoelastic-viscous effects on indentation creep. It is shown that this method can fit the experimental creep data well, to give the exact changes of creep behavior during nanoindentations for numbers of amorphous polymeric materials. A method has also been proposed to determine the elastic modulus based on this model; the elastic modulus determined from this method is independent of the holding and unloading processes of nanoindentations. Creep deformation is further used to derive creep compliance and retardation spectrums for the polymeric materials studied, which are very useful to predict other mechanical properties of polymeric materials.