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    Manipulating thermal transport in monolayer MoS2 via surface charge transfer doping with MoO3 molecules

    Weikuan Li1, Jianlian Huang1, Yanping Qiu1, Zhirong Shi1, Haiping Lin2, Wei Zhang1, Yajuan Cheng3,*, Ting Liang4, Shiyun Xiong1,† et al.

    Jianbin Xu4

    • *Contact author: yajuancheng@gzhu.edu.cn
    • †Contact author: syxiong@gdut.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. B 114, 185416 – Published 11 September, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/91m7-7kc6

    Abstract

    Surface charge transfer doping (SCTD) preserves the pristine crystal structure and allows precise tuning of the doping level, making it a promising strategy for modulating the properties of low-dimensional materials. In this work, we investigate the effect of surface MoO3 molecular doping on the thermal transport properties of monolayer MoS2. Density functional theory calculations reveal that surface-adsorbed MoO3 enables the injection of holes (0.331emolecule−1) into monolayer MoS2, providing p-type doping. The charge transfer also leads to strong adsorption of the MoO3 molecule on the MoS2, with adsorption energies below –1.85 eV. Based on a developed neuroevolution potential and homogeneous nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate that MoO3 adsorption significantly reduces the lattice thermal conductivity (LTC) of monolayer MoS2. At 300 K, the LTC decreases from 163.9Wm−1K−1 in pristine MoS2 to 47.3Wm−1K−1 at a doping level of 1.82×1013moleculecm−2. The LTC is further reduced to 28.3Wm−1K−1 when the concentration of MoO3 increases to 7.29×1013moleculecm−2. The introduction of surface MoO3 dopants generates resonant flat bands at various frequencies in the phonon dispersion curves. These resonant modes interact with propagating modes in MoS2, which not only reduce phonon group velocities but also enhance phonon–phonon scattering by increasing the number of scattering channels. The resonant effect is particularly pronounced in the low-frequency regime, where the phonon mean free path is reduced by more than one order of magnitude when the doping concentration exceeds 1.82×1013moleculecm−2. This work demonstrates that SCTD not only enables efficient carrier modulation in 2D semiconductors but also provides precise control over thermal transport through the phonon resonance effect, offering a strategy for the design of high-performance 2D thermoelectric materials.

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