Enhancing the Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution Reaction through Nanoscrolling of Two-Dimensional Material Heterojunctions

Ghosh, R and Singh, M and Chang, LW and Lin, H-I and Chen, YS and Muthu, J and Papnai, B and Kang, YS and Liao, Y-M and Bera, KP and Guo, G-Y and Hsieh, Y-P and Hofmann, M and Chen, Y-F (2022) Enhancing the Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution Reaction through Nanoscrolling of Two-Dimensional Material Heterojunctions. In: ACS Nano, 16 (4). pp. 5743-5751.

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Abstract

The clean production of hydrogen from water using sunlight has emerged as a sustainable alternative toward large-scale energy generation and storage. However, designing photoactive semiconductors that are suitable for both light harvesting and water splitting is a pivotal challenge. Atomically thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) are considered as promising photocatalysts because of their wide range of available electronic properties and compositional variability. However, trade-offs between carrier transport efficiency, light absorption, and electrochemical reactivity have limited their prospects. We here combine two approaches that synergistically enhance the efficiency of photocarrier generation and electrocatalytic efficiency of two-dimensional (2D) TMDs. The arrangement of monolayer WS2 and MoS2 into a heterojunction and subsequent nanostructuring into a nanoscroll (NS) yields significant modifications of fundamental properties from its constituents. Spectroscopic characterization and ab initio simulation demonstrate the beneficial effects of straining and wall interactions on the band structure of such a heterojunction-NS that enhance the electrochemical reaction rate by an order of magnitude compared to planar heterojunctions. Phototrapping in this NS further increases the light-matter interaction and yields superior photocatalytic performance compared to previously reported 2D material catalysts and is comparable to noble-metal catalyst systems in the photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (PEC-HER) process. Our approach highlights the potential of morphologically varied TMD-based catalysts for PEC-HER. © 2022 American Chemical Society.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	ACS Nano
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to American Chemical Society
Keywords:	Catalysts; Economic and social effects; Electronic properties; Layered semiconductors; Light absorption; Molybdenum compounds; Photoelectrochemical cells; Precious metals; Tungsten compounds, Clean production; Dichalcogenides; Hydrogen evolution reactions; MoS2-WS2; Nanoscrolls; Photoelectrochemical hydrogen; Photoelectrochemicals; Production of hydrogen; Two-dimensional materials; ]+ catalyst, Heterojunctions
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	19 May 2022 05:55
Last Modified:	21 Sep 2022 06:23
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/72025

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