Electrochemical intercalation of hydrated cations derived from primary amines into 2H-NbS2

We report the electrochemical intercalation of three cations derived from amines with different chain length, into the layered compound 2H-NbS₂. The intercalation processes were accompanied by ex situ and in situ X-ray diffraction. For in situ analysis, an electrochemical cell was designed for the purpose. The X-ray diffraction experiments show that the intercalation is a complex process, which involves stacking faults and the formation of stages. When the cations are removed, no changes in the final interplanar basal distances occur, suggesting that there are ideal concentrations of intercalated ions that stabilize the phases. Also, based on the X-ray diffraction results we propose a steric arrangement for the hydrated cations into the van der Waals gaps.