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Nano Research 2015, 8(1): 281-287 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0673-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 29 December 2014

MoS2-wrapped silicon nanowires for photoelectrochemical water reduction

Show Author's Information Liming Zhang1,†,§,  Chong Liu1,§,  Andrew Barnabas Wong1,4,  Joaquin Resasco2,  Peidong Yang1,3,4( )
Department of ChemistryUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of Chemical EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
Materials Sciences DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA94720USA

† Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
MoS2, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), photoelectrochemistry, Si nanowire array, coaxial heterostructure
Cite this article:
Zhang L, Liu C, Wong AB, et al. MoS2-wrapped silicon nanowires for photoelectrochemical water reduction. Nano Research, 2015, 8(1): 281-287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0673-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Integration of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) onto high surface area photocathodes is highly desired to minimize the overpotential for the solar-powered hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are beneficial for use in photoelectrochemistry because of their large electrochemically available surface area and inherent ability to decouple light absorption and the transport of minority carriers. Here, silicon (Si) NW arrays were employed as a model photocathode system for MoS2 wrapping, and their solar-driven HER activity was evaluated. The photocathode is made up of a well-defined MoS2/TiO2/Si coaxial NW heterostructure, which yielded photocurrent density up to 15 mA/cm2 (at 0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) with good stability under the operating conditions employed. This work reveals that earth-abundant electrocatalysts coupled with high surface area NW electrodes can provide performance comparable to noble metal catalysts for photocathodic hydrogen evolution.


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About this article

MoS2-wrapped silicon nanowires for photoelectrochemical water reduction

Show Author's information Liming Zhang1,†,§, Chong Liu1,§, Andrew Barnabas Wong1,4, Joaquin Resasco2, Peidong Yang1,3,4( )
Department of ChemistryUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of Chemical EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
Department of Materials Science and EngineeringUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeleyCA94720USA
Materials Sciences DivisionLawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryBerkeleyCA94720USA

† Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Integration of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) onto high surface area photocathodes is highly desired to minimize the overpotential for the solar-powered hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are beneficial for use in photoelectrochemistry because of their large electrochemically available surface area and inherent ability to decouple light absorption and the transport of minority carriers. Here, silicon (Si) NW arrays were employed as a model photocathode system for MoS2 wrapping, and their solar-driven HER activity was evaluated. The photocathode is made up of a well-defined MoS2/TiO2/Si coaxial NW heterostructure, which yielded photocurrent density up to 15 mA/cm2 (at 0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)) with good stability under the operating conditions employed. This work reveals that earth-abundant electrocatalysts coupled with high surface area NW electrodes can provide performance comparable to noble metal catalysts for photocathodic hydrogen evolution.

Keywords: MoS2, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), photoelectrochemistry, Si nanowire array, coaxial heterostructure

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 03 November 2014
Revised: 26 November 2014
Accepted: 30 November 2014
Published: 29 December 2014
Issue date: January 2015

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer‐Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division, U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231 (P-Chem). J.R. gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) under Grant No. DGE-0802270.

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