Titanium trisulfide

Titanium trisulfide (TiS₃) is an inorganic chemical compound of titanium and sulfur. Its formula unit contains one Ti⁴⁺ cation, one S^{2−} anion and one S₂^{2−}.

TiS₃ has a layered crystal structure, where the layers are weakly bonded to each other and can be exfoliated with an adhesive tape. The exfoliated layers have potential applications in ultrathin field-effect transistors.

Synthesis

Millimeter-long crystalline whiskers of TiS₃ can be grown by chemical vapor transport at ca. 500 °C, using excess sulfur as the transporting gas.

Properties

TiS₃ is an n-type semiconductor with an indirect bandgap of about 1 eV. Its individual layers are made of TiS atomic chains; hence they are anisotropic and their properties depend on the in-plane orientation. For example, in the same sample, electron mobility can be 80 cm²/(V·s) along the b-axis and 40 cm²/(V·s) along the a-axis.

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