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Vol. 10 No. 4 (2018)

Enhanced Performance of a Monolayer MoS2/WSe2 Heterojunction as a Photoelectrochemical Cathode

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-018-0212-6
Jingwei Xiao
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China
Yu Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China
Huanjun Chen
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China
Ningsheng Xu
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China
Shaozhi Deng
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Display Material and Technology, School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Yu Zhang

stszhyu@mail.sysu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 10 No. 4 (2018), Article Number: 60

Abstract

Transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) semiconductors have attracted interest as photoelectrochemical (PEC) electrodes due to their novel band-gap structures, optoelectronic properties, and photocatalytic activities. However, the photo-harvesting efficiency still requires improvement. In this study, A TMD stacked heterojunction structure was adopted to further enhance the performance of the PEC cathode. A P-type WSe2 and an N-type MoS2 monolayer were stacked layer-by-layer to build a ultrathin vertical heterojunction using a micro-fabrication method. In situ measurement was employed to characterize the intrinsic PEC performance on a single-sheet heterostructure. Benefitting from its built-in electric field and type II band alignment, the MoS2/WSe2 bilayer heterojunction exhibited exceptional photocatalytic activity and a high incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE). Comparing with the monolayer WSe2 cathode, the PEC current and the IPCE of the bilayer heterojunction increased by a factor of 5.6 and enhanced 50%, respectively. The intriguing performance renders the MoS2/WSe2 heterojunction attractive for application in high-performance PEC water splitting.


Highlights:


1 A vertical transition-metal dichalcogenide MoS2/WSe2 bilayer heterojunction was built by stacking a P-type WSe2 and an N-type MoS2 monolayer.
2 An in situ measurement method was employed to characterize the intrinsic photoelectrochemical performance on the microscale.
3 The photoelectrochemical current and the incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency of the MoS2/WSe2 bilayer heterojunction increased by a factor of 5.6 and enhanced 50% compared with the monolayer WSe2 cathode.








Keywords

MoS2/WSe2 Monolayer Bilayer Heterojunction Photoelectrochemical cathode
Xiao, Jingwei, Yu Zhang, Huanjun Chen, Ningsheng Xu, and Shaozhi Deng. 2018. “Enhanced Performance of a Monolayer MoS2/WSe2 Heterojunction As a Photoelectrochemical Cathode”. Nano-Micro Letters 10 (4):60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-018-0212-6.
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