Kinetics determine the growth behavior of thin films, particularly for atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides. Metal-organic (MO) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) offers promise for scalable growth, but the reactions are kinetically limited, leading to nanometer-scale domain size and carbon contaminations. Here, we unveil the fundamental kinetic limitations and overcome them by introducing oxygen-assisted MOCVD (oxy-MOCVD) technology. By tuning reactions with oxygen, MO precursors are converted into high-purity transition-metal oxides and chalcogens, producing aligned molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) domains with a size and growth rate that are orders of magnitude larger than conventional MOCVD. The MoS 2 is free of carbon impurities and exhibits average mobility exceeding 100 square centimeters per volt per second. The scalability of oxy-MOCVD is demonstrated by 150-millimeter single-crystal MoS 2 wafers, proving the feasibility of industrial-scale production.
Liu et al. (2026) studied this question.