title: Efficient and Stable Silicon Photocathodes Coated with Vertically Standing Nano-MoS2Films for Solar Hydrogen Production.
abstract: Water splitting in a photoelectrochemical cell, which converts sunlight into hydrogen energy, has recently received intense research. Silicon is suitable as a viable light-harvesting material for constructing such cell; however, there is a need to improve its stability and explore a cheap and efficient cocatalyst. Here we fabricate highly efficient and stable photocathodes by integrating crystalline MoS2catalyst with ∼2 nm Al2O3protected n+p-Si. Al2O3acts as a protective and passivative layer of the Si surface, while the sputtering method using a MoS2target along with a postannealing leads to a vertically standing, conformal, and crystalline nano-MoS2layer on Al2O3/n+p-Si photocathode. Efficient (0.4 V vs RHE onset potential and 35.6 mA/cm2saturated photocurrent measured under 100 mA/cm2Xe lamp illumination) and stable (above 120 h continuous water splitting) photocathode was obtained, which opens the door for the MoS2catalyst to be applied in photoelectrochemical hydrogen evolution in a facile and scalable way.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Ronglei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Zhihao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Jiansheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jie
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Fengang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films and ‡Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-based Functional Materials and Devices, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow University , Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Mingrong
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7741-746X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
keywords: Al2O3 layer; MoS2 catalyst; photocathode; photoelectrochemical properties; silicon