Synthesis and Characterization of a Mercury-Intercalated Molybdenum Disulfide

Elemental mercury cannot be intercalated into crystalline molybdenum disulfide as such, probably for structural reasons, the a parameter of the host being too small. On the contrary, we show that a reaction between restacked MoS2 and liquid mercury allows the synthesis of such an intercalate. X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments show that such different behavior is due to the appropriate structural configuration of the restacked phase. Intercalated mercury stabilizes the structural and d3 electronic configuration of molybdenum.