Direct Synthesis of Site-Specific MoS2 Arrays via Microcontact Printing and Chemical Vapor Deposition.

The scalable synthesis of site-specific, high-quality two-dimensional (2D) material arrays is essential for integrating 2D materials into next-generation integrated circuits. Conventional patterning methods often introduce defects and contamination. Here, we report a simple and efficient approach to fabricating monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) arrays by combining microcontact printing (μCP) with chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Sodium molybdate (Na2MoO4) aqueous solution droplet arrays are first printed onto SiO2/Si substrates via μCP, followed by CVD to convert them into crystalline MoS2 arrays. Via μCP, Na2MoO4 is confined to microscale circular areas arranged in an array on the substrate. This restricts the nucleation sites of MoS2 during CVD to these microscale circular regions. As a result, a MoS2 crystal array is obtained. The resulting arrays exhibit monolayer thickness (∼0.7 nm) and high crystalline quality, as confirmed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman and PL spectroscopy. Field-effect transistor (FET) arrays fabricated from these MoS2 arrays exhibit typical n-type behavior with on/off ratios up to 106 and mobilities reaching 9 cm2 V-1 s-1. This method provides a straightforward, scalable, and minimally invasive route to site-specific 2D material synthesis for advanced electronics applications.