Samuel Pedersen, a fourth-year graduate student in the AML, recently published his work on the high energy ball mill conversion of red phosphorus to black phosphorus (BP) for use in silicon photonics in Nature Partner Journal, 2D Materials and Applications. The work highlights the optimum milling conditions and kinetic parameters for scaling BP production. Notably, this ball milling route avoids the hazardous chemicals typically used for producing BP by chemical vapor transport; instead, the high energy impacts phase transforms red phosphorus directly into black phosphorus powders which can subsequently be incorporated into inks for additively manufacturing silicon photonic devices. The collaboration with Iris Light Technologies and the Advanced Nanomaterials and Manufacturing Laboratory aims at further optimizing the BP via doping, ink synthesis, and device fabrication and testing.
You can read more about their work in this post by Boise State University and the full publication here.