ABSTRACT
Light irradiation has emerged as a promising strategy to promote room temperature sensing of resistive-type semiconductor gas sensors recently. However, high recombination rate of photo-generated carriers and poor visible light response of conventional semiconductor sensing materials have greatly limited the further performance improvement. It is urgent to develop gas sensing materials with high photo-generated carrier separation efficiency and excellent visible light response. Herein, a novel direct Z-scheme NiO/Bi2MoO6 heterostructure arrays were designed and in-situ constructed on alumina flat substrate to form thin film sensors, which realized excellent room temperature gas response towards ether under irradiation of visible light for the first time, together with excellent stability and selectivity. Based on density functional theory calculation and experimental characterization, it was demonstrated that the construction of Z-scheme heterostructure could greatly promote the separation of photo-generated carriers and adsorption of ether. Moreover, the excellent visible light response characteristics of NiO/Bi2MoO6 could improve the utilization of visible light. In addition, the in-situ construction of array structure could avoid a series of problems caused by the conventional thick film devices. The work not only provides a promising guideline for Z-scheme heterostructure arrays in promoting the room temperature sensing performance of semiconductors gas sensors under visible light irradiation, but also clarifies the gas sensing mechanism of Z-scheme heterostructure at the atomic and electronic level.
ABSTRACT
Co-based phosphides are considered to be highly promising electrocatalysts for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, their electrocatalytic efficiencies are greatly limited by the weak water dissociation process and unsatisfactory adsorption ability toward reaction intermediates. Herein, novel Mn-doped CoP/Ni(PO3)2 heterostructure array electrocatalysts which are composed of highly dispersed Ni(PO3)2 nanoclusters that are tightly wrapped on Mn-doped CoP nanowire arrays are designed. An electrocatalytic performance test suggested that the heterostructure arrays exhibited competitive electrocatalytic performance toward both HER and OER, which needed overpotentials of 116 and 245 mV to drive a current of 10 mA/cm2, respectively. Encouragingly, a symmetric two electrode water splitting system constructed by the heterostructure arrays required an ultralow cell voltage, suggesting the potential in overall water splitting. First-principles calculations combined with experimental characterization were further performed to clarify the electrocatalytic mechanism. On the one hand, effective doping of Mn atoms could optimize the surface electronic structure of CoP and promote the intrinsic activity. On the other hand, the compact and abundant heterogeneous interface between Ni(PO3)2 and CoP not only made more active sites exposed but also promoted the effective adsorption of intermediate reaction species on the catalyst surface. This work provides a new strategy to improve electrocatalytic performance of Co-based phosphides through the synergistic coupling of metal-doping and phosphate surface decoration, which will greatly promote the development of highly efficient electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.
ABSTRACT
Light assistance and construction of heterojunctions are both promising means to improve the room temperature gas sensing performance of MoS2 recently. However, enhancing the separation efficiency of photo-generated carriers at interface and adsorption ability of surface have become the bottleneck problem to further improve the room temperature gas sensing performance of MoS2-based heterojunctions under light assistance. In the present study, a novel direct Z-scheme MoS2/SnO2 heterojunction was designed through crystal facets engineering and its room temperature gas sensing properties under light assistance was studied. It was found that the heterojunction showed outstanding room temperature NO2 sensing performance with a high response of 208.66 toward 10 ppm NO2, together with excellent recovery characteristics and selectivity. The gas sensing mechanism study suggested that high-energy {221} crystal facets of SnO2 and MoS2 directly formed Z-scheme heterojunction, which could greatly improve the separation efficiency of photo-generated carriers with high redox capacity. Moreover, {221} facets greatly enhanced adsorption ability towards NO2. This work not only opens up the application of Z-scheme heterojunctions in gas sensing, which will greatly promotes the development of room temperature light-assisted gas sensors, but also provides a new idea for the construction of direct Z-scheme heterojunctions through crystal facets engineering.
