Two dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide based bilayer heterojunctions for efficient solar cells and photocatalytic applications
Khushboo Dange, Rachana Yogi, Alok Shukla
备注：
49 pages (40 pages Manuscript and 9 pages Supporting Material), 9 figures and 11 tables in the manuscript, and 7 figures and 6 tables in the Supporting Material
This work presents a first-principles study of the optoelectronic properties of vertically-stacked bilayer heterostructures composed of 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). The calculations are performed using the density-functional theory (DFT) and many-body perturbation theory within $G_0W_0$-BSE methodology. We aim to propose these TMD heterostructures for solar cell applications. The TMD monolayers comprising the heterojunctions considered in this work are $MoS_2$, $WS_2$, $MoSe_2$, and $WSe_2$ due to their favorable band gaps, high carrier mobility, robust absorption in the visible region, and excellent stability. These four TMD monolayers provide the basis for six heterostructures. Consequently, we have examined the structural, electronic, and optical properties of six heterostructures ($WS_2/MoS_2$, $MoSe_2/MoS_2$, $MoSe_2/WS_2$, $WSe_2/MoS_2$, $WSe_2/MoSe_2$, and $WSe_2/WS_2$). At the DFT level, all the six considered TMD heterostructures meet the essential criterion of type II band alignment, a critical factor in extending carrier lifetime. However, according to $G_0W_0$ results, $MoSe_2/WS_2$ does not exhibit the type II band alignment, instead it shows type I band alignment. The large quasiparticle gaps obtained from $G_0W_0$ approximation suggest the presence of strong electron-correlation effects. The quality of these heterojunction solar cells is estimated by computing their power conversion efficiencies (PCE). The PCEs are calculated at both the HSE06 and $G_0W_0$ levels, and the maximum PCE predicted by HSE06 calculations on our designed solar cells can reach up to 19.25% for the $WSe_2/WS_2$ heterojunction. In addition, all six TMD heterostructures are examined for their potential applications in photocatalysis for hydrogen evolution reaction, and the three of them, namely, $WS_2/MoS_2$, $MoSe_2/MoS_2$, and $WSe_2/MoS_2$ heterostructures qualify for the same.
The high recombination rate of photogenerated carriers is the bottleneck of photocatalysis, severely limiting the photocatalytic efficiency. Here, we develop a dipole-scheme (D-scheme for short) photocatalytic model and materials realization. The D-scheme heterojunction not only can effectively separate electrons and holes by a large polarization field, but also boosts photocatalytic redox reactions with large driving photovoltages and without any carrier loss. By means of first-principles and GW calculations, we propose a D-scheme heterojunction prototype with two real polar materials, PtSeTe…
High-entropy oxides (HEOs), as multi-component ceramics with high configurational entropy, have been of recent interest due to their attractive properties including photocatalytic activity for H2 production and CO2 conversion. However, the photocatalytic activity of HEOs is still limited to ultraviolet light. In this study, to achieve visible-light-driven photocatalysis, 10 different heterojunctions were simultaneously introduced in the Ti-Zr-Nb-Ta-W-O system. The oxide, which was synthesized by a high-pressure torsion method and oxidation, successfully produced oxygen from water under visible…
Two-dimensional (2D) lateral heterojunctions of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have become a reality in recent years. Semiconducting TMDC layers in their common H -structure have a nonzero in-plane electric polarization, which is a topological invariant. We show by means of first-principles calculations that lateral 2D heterojunctions between TMDCs with a different polarization generate one-dimensional (1D) metallic states at the junction, even in cases where the different materials are joined epitaxially. The metallicity does not depend upon structural details, and is explained from…
First principles study of chalcogen vacancy effect on the optoelectronic and photocatalytic properties of transition metal dichalcogenides monolayers
Department of Control Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague（布拉格捷克理工大学电气工程学院控制工程系）；Engineering Materials & nCATS, FEE, University of Southampton（南安普顿大学电气工程学院工程材料与nCATS）
Integration of promising piezoelectric and photocatalytic properties in Janus In$XY$ ($X$ = S, Se, Te; $Y$ = Cl, Br, I) monolayers and their heterojunctions
Metal sulfides are emerging as an important class of materials for photocatalytic applications, because of their high photo responsive nature in the wide visible light range. CdS in this class of materials, have a direct band gap of 2.4 eV, have gained special attention due to the relative position of its conduction band minimum, which is very close to the energies of the reduced protons. However, the photogenerated holes in the valence band of CdS are prone to oxidation and destroy its structure during photocatalysis. Thus constructing a CdS based heterostructure would be an effective strateg…
The manipulation of two-dimensional materials via their dielectric environment offers novel opportunities to control electronic as well as optical properties and allows to imprint nanostructures in a non-invasive way. Here we asses the potential of monolayer semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) for Coulomb engineering in a material realistic and quantitative manner. We compare the response of different TMDC materials to modifications of their dielectric surrounding, analyze effects of dynamic substrate screening, i.e. frequency dependencies in the dielectric functions, and d…
Low-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) exhibit great photocatalytic performance and tunability. In this work, using first-principles simulations based on density functional theory (DFT), we demonstrate that external electric bias can be employed to further improve the photocatalytic hydrogen production efficiency of the six AB$_{2}$ (A=Mo, W and B=S, Se, Te) TMDC monolayers by exploiting their piezoelectric response. In particular, when subjected to a proper amount of electrically induced tensile biaxial strain, most TMDC monolayers turn into potentially ideal photocatalyst to…
Boosting hydrogen and methane formation on a high-entropy photocatalyst by integrating atomic d0/d10 electronic junctions and microscopic P/N heterojunctions
Metal Halide Perovskite/Chalcohalide Heterojunctions for the Photoinduced Oxidative Coupling of p-substituted Thiophenols
Italian Institute of Technology（意大利理工大学）；Politecnico di Torino（都灵理工大学）；Lund University, Division of Chemical Physics（隆德大学化学物理系）；Institute of Molecular Science, University of Valencia（瓦伦西亚大学分子科学研究所）
Converting solar energy into chemical energy by splitting water is a promising means to generate a sustainable and renewable solution without detrimental environmental impact. The two-dimensional semiconductors serve as potential catalysts in this regard, and here we combine Janus transition-metal dichalcogenides (MoXY, X/Y = S, Se, Te) and graphitic carbon nitride in a van der Waals heterostructure. Within the first-principles calculations, we investigate the electronic, optical and excitonic properties that determine the photocatalytic activity. Due to the internal electric field, the photog…
We report a first-principle theoretical study of a monolayer-thick lateral heterostructure (LH) joining two different transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC): NbS2 and WSe2. The NbS2//WSe2 LH can be considered a prototypical example of a conducting(NbS2)/semiconducting(WSe2) two-dimensional (2D) hybrid heterojunction. We first generate and validate realistic atomistic models of the NbS2//WSe2 LH, derive their band structure and subject it to a fragment decomposition and electrostatic potential analysis to extract a simple but quantitative model of this interfacial system. Stoichiometric fluctu…
The ability to engineer atomically thin nanoscale lateral heterojunctions (HJs) is critical to lay the foundation for future two-dimensional (2D) device technology. However, the traditional approach to creating a heterojunction by direct growth of a heterostructure of two different materials constrains the available band offsets, and it is still unclear if large built-in potentials are attainable for 2D materials. The electronic properties of atomically thin semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are not static, and their exciton binding energy and quasiparticle band gap depend…
We have synthesized MoS$_{2}$ incorporated $α$-Fe$_{2}$O$_{3}$/ZnO nanocomposites by the hydrothermal process. The effect of incorporating ultrasonically exfoliated MoS$_{2}$ on the photocatalytic performance of $α$-Fe$_{2}$O$_{3}$/ZnO nanocomposites has been demonstrated. Structural, morphological and optical characteristics of the nanomaterials are investigated by performing Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction patterns, field emission scanning electron microscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy. The photoluminescence spectra of the nanocomposites show that the recombination of photog…
Two-dimensional lateral heterojunctions are basic components for low-power and flexible optoelectronics. In contrast to monolayers, devices based on few-layer lateral heterostructures could offer superior performance due to their lower susceptibility to environmental conditions. Here, we report the controlled synthesis of multi-junction bilayer lateral heterostructures based on MoS2-WS2 and MoSe2-WSe2, where the hetero-junctions are created via sequential lateral edge-epitaxy that happens simultaneously in both the first and the second layer. With respect to their monolayer counterparts, bilay…
Black TiO2 with/without noble metal has been proposed for visible photocatalyst, still leaving poor catalyst efficiency. Alternatively, phase-mixed TiO2 such as anatase and rutile has been commonly used for visible catalysts with the inevitable inclusion of noble metal. Here, we perform a noble metal-free visible photocatalyst blue TiO2 with type-II band-aligned ordered anatase/disordered rutile structure, via phase-selective reduction with alkali metals. The changed band alignment in this heterostructure was identified by absorption and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, which was furthe…
Electron valleys in transition-metal dichalcogenide monolayers drive novel physics and allow designing multifunctional architectures for applications. We propose to manipulate the electron valleys in these systems for spin/valley filter and valve devices through band engineering. Instead of the magnetic proximity effect that has been extensively used in previous studies, in our strategy, the electron valleys are directly coupled to the spin-polarized states of the two-dimensional ferromagnets. We find that this coupling results in a valley-selective gap opening due to the spin-momentum locking…
Recently, a number of new two-dimensional (2D) materials based on puckered phosphorene and arsenene have been predicted with moderate band gaps, good absorption properties and carrier mobilities superior to transition metal dichalcogenides. For heterojunction applications, it is important to know the relative band alignment of these new 2D materials. We report the band alignment of puckered CaP$_3$, CaAs$_3$ and BaAs$_3$ monolayers at the quasiparticle level of theory (G$_0$W$_0$), calculating band offsets for isolated monolayers according to the electron affinity rule. Our calculations sugges…
Chemical vapor deposition has been most recently employed to fabricate centimeter-scale high-quality single-layer MoSi2N4 (Science; 2020;369; 670). Motivated by this exciting experimental advance, herein we conduct extensive first-principles based simulations to explore the stability, mechanical properties, lattice thermal conductivity, piezoelectric and flexoelectric response, and photocatalytic and electronic features of MA2Z4 (M = Cr, Mo, W; A = Si, Ge; Z = N, P) monolayers. The considered nanosheets are found to exhibit dynamical stability and remarkably high mechanical properties. Moreove…
Two-dimensional (2D) materials viz. transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) and transition metal oxides (TMO) offer a platform that allows creation of heterostructures with a variety of properties. The optoelectronic industry has observed an upheaval in the research arena of MoS$_2$ based van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures (HTSs) and Janus structures. Therefore, interest towards these structures are backed by the selectivity in terms of electronic and optical properties. The present study investigates the photocatalytic ability of bilayer, MoS$_2$ and Janus (MoSSe) based vdW HTSs viz. MoS$_2$…
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) allows lateral edge epitaxy of transition metal dichalcogenide heterostructures with potential applications in optoelectronics. Critical for carrier and exciton transport is the quality of the two materials that constitute the monolayer and the nature of the lateral heterojunction. Important details of the optical properties were inaccessible in as-grown heterostructure samples due to large inhomogeneous broadening of the optical transitions. Here we perform optical spectroscopy at T = 4 K and also at 300 K to access the optical transitions in CVD grown MoSe2-WS…
Excitons dominate the optics of atomically-thin transition metal dichalcogenides and 2D van der Waals heterostructures. Interlayer 2D excitons, with an electron and a hole residing in different layers, form rapidly in heterostructures either via direct charge transfer or via Coulomb interactions that exchange energy between layers. Here, we report prominent intertube excitonic effects in quasi-1D van der Waals heterostructures consisting of C/BN/MoS$_2$ core/shell/skin nanotubes. Remarkably, under pulsed infrared excitation of excitons in the semiconducting CNTs we observed a rapid (sub-picose…
Two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures (HS) formed by transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) monolayers offer a unique platform for the study of intralayer and interlayer excitons as well as moiré-pattern-induced features. Particularly, the dipolar charge-transfer exciton comprising an electron and a hole, which are confined to separate layers of 2D semiconductors and Coulomb-bound across the heterojunction interface, has drawn considerable attention in the research community. On the one hand, it bears significance for optoelectronic devices, e.g. in terms of charge carrier extraction from phot…
The strong light-matter interaction in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is promising for nanoscale optoelectronics with their direct band gap nature and the ultra-fast radiative decay of the strongly bound excitons these materials host. However, the impeded amount of light absorption imposed by the ultra-thin nature of the monolayers impairs their viability in photonic applications. Using a layered heterostructure of a monolayer TMD stacked on top of strongly absorbing, non-luminescent, multi-layer SnSe2, we show that both single-photon and two-photon luminescence from the TMD…
The growth and microstructural properties of ternary monolayers of two-dimensional hexagonal materials are examined, including both individual two-dimensional crystalline grains and in-plane heterostructures, multijunctions, or superlattices. The study is conducted through the development of a ternary phase field crystal model incorporating sublattice ordering and the coupling among the three atomic components. The results demonstrate that a transition of compositional pattern or modulation in this type of two-dimensional ternary crystals, from phase separation to geometrically frustrated latt…
