disulfide

A few of the most prominent of these in A. titanum are oligosulfides like dimethyl disulfide and dimethyl trisulfide.

A study published this month in the journal Science explored the exact genetic mechanisms of Asarum flowers to figure out how they pull this off, exploring the ways some plants in the genus produce dimethyl disulfide, that corpse-smell compound.

Yiling Yu, a member of Xiao's research team, grew isotopically pure 2D crystals of atomically thin molybdenum disulfide using molybdenum atoms of different masses.

"Unexpectedly, the light from the molybdenum disulfide with the heavier molybdenum atoms was shifted farther to the red end of the spectrum, which is opposite to the shift one would expect for bulk materials," Xiao said.

To prove the anomalous isotope effect and measure its magnitude to compare with theoretical predictions, Yu grew molybdenum disulfide crystals with two molybdenum isotopes in one crystal.