Colloidal Single‐Layer Photocatalysts for Methanol‐Storable Solar H2 Fuel

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) Vol. 31; no. 49; pp. e1905540 - n/a
• Main Authors: Pang, Yingping, Uddin, Md Nasir, Chen, Wei, Javaid, Shaghraf, Barker, Emily, Li, Yunguo, Suvorova, Alexandra, Saunders, Martin, Yin, Zongyou, Jia, Guohua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.12.2019
• Subjects: 2D materials; Chemical synthesis; Colloid chemistry; Fuel production; Fuels; Materials science; Methanol; methanol‐storable fuel, H2 fuel; Molybdenum disulfide; Morphology; Nanomaterials; Organic chemistry; Photocatalysis; Photocatalysts; Room temperature; single‐layer transition metal dichalcogenides; solar‐driven photocatalysis; Surfactants; Transition metal compounds; Two dimensional materials
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201905540

Molecular surfactants are widely used to control low‐dimensional morphologies, including 2D nanomaterials in colloidal chemical synthesis, but it is still highly challenging to accurately control single‐layer growth for 2D materials. A scalable stacking‐hinderable strategy to not only enable exclusive single‐layer growth mode for transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) selectively sandwiched by surfactant molecules but also retain sandwiched single‐layer TMDs' photoredox activities is developed. The single‐layer growth mechanism is well explained by theoretical calculation. Three types of single‐layer TMDs, including MoS2, WS2, and ReS2, are successfully synthesized and demonstrated in solar H2 fuel production from hydrogen‐stored liquid carrier—methanol. Such H2 fuel production from single‐layer MoS2 nanosheets is COx‐free and reliably workable under room temperature and normal pressure with the generation rate reaching ≈617 µmole g−1 h−1 and excellent photoredox endurability. This strategy opens up the feasible avenue to develop methanol‐storable solar H2 fuel with facile chemical rebonding actualized by 2D single‐layer photocatalysts. A scalable stacking‐hinderable strategy is developed to enable exclusive single‐layer growth mode for transition metal dichalcogenides selectively sandwiched by surfactant molecules. These can act as efficient solar‐driven photocatalysts for solar H2 fuel production from hydrogen‐stored liquid carrier—methanol.