Preparation of antimonene by laser irradiation in different solvents for optical limiting

Antimonene and antimonene oxides were prepared by laser irradiation in different solvents, including deionized water, ethanol and isopropanol. The results showed that isopropanol was proven to be more suitable for preparing high-quality antimonene with good dispersion and slight surface oxidation, which was probably attributed to its chain length and no reaction with antimony under laser irradiation. In addition, open aperture and closed aperture Z-scan experiments were carried out to study the optical limiting properties of antimonene. It was observed that antimonene prepared in isopropanol exhibited stronger optical limiting ability with a NLO absorption coefficient βeff of ~2.00 cm/GW and a positive nonlinear refraction index n2 of ~1.10 × 10−13 cm2/W, making it a good candidate for applications in optical limiting devices and laser protection.