Alessandro Silvestri opened the discussion of the paper by Alessandro Molle: Can the encapsulation technique described in the paper affect the chemicalphysical properties of the 2D material encapsulated? Could you comment regarding possible changes in the electron distribution and reactivity/interaction toward other chemical species?Alessandro Molle responded: Al2O3 encapsulation of Xenes was engineered to minimize or nullify the effect on the silicene and more generally on the Xenes. This fact stems from the details of the Al2O3 growth, namely Al2O3 is sequentially grown a er silicene, developing rst through Al single layer growth followed by Al-O2 co-deposition at room temperature, eventually ending up with a nal Al2O3 layer with controlled thickness. Based on in situ XPS analysis no change occurs in terms of chemical bonding in the silicene a er encapsulation. In the case of epi-phosphorene …