Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item
    Electron Transport across Vertical Silicon/MoS2/Graphene Heterostructures: Towards Efficient Emitter Diodes for Graphene Base Hot Electron Transistors
    (Washington, DC : ACS Publications, 2020) Belete, Melkamu; Engström, Olof; Vaziri, Sam; Lippert, Gunther; Lukosius, Mindaugas; Kataria, Satender; Lemme, Max C.
    Heterostructures comprising silicon, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), and graphene are investigated with respect to the vertical current conduction mechanism. The measured current-voltage (I-V) characteristics exhibit temperature-dependent asymmetric current, indicating thermally activated charge carrier transport. The data are compared and fitted to a current transport model that confirms thermionic emission as the responsible transport mechanism across devices. Theoretical calculations in combination with the experimental data suggest that the heterojunction barrier from Si to MoS2 is linearly temperature-dependent for T = 200-300 K with a positive temperature coefficient. The temperature dependence may be attributed to a change in band gap difference between Si and MoS2, strain at the Si/MoS2 interface, or different electron effective masses in Si and MoS2, leading to a possible entropy change stemming from variation in density of states as electrons move from Si to MoS2. The low barrier formed between Si and MoS2 and the resultant thermionic emission demonstrated here make the present devices potential candidates as the emitter diode of graphene base hot electron transistors for future high-speed electronics. Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
  • Item
    Interfacial Covalent Bonds Regulated Electron-Deficient 2D Black Phosphorus for Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reactions
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Wang, Xia; Raghupathy, Ramya Kormath Madam; Querebillo, Christine Joy; Liao, Zhongquan; Li, Dongqi; Lin, Kui; Hantusch, Martin; Sofer, Zdeněk; Li, Baohua; Zschech, Ehrenfried; Weidinger, Inez M.; Kühne, Thomas D.; Mirhosseini, Hossein; Yu, Minghao; Feng, Xinliang
    Developing resource-abundant and sustainable metal-free bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts is essential for the practical application of zinc–air batteries (ZABs). 2D black phosphorus (BP) with fully exposed atoms and active lone pair electrons can be promising for oxygen electrocatalysts, which, however, suffers from low catalytic activity and poor electrochemical stability. Herein, guided by density functional theory (DFT) calculations, an efficient metal-free electrocatalyst is demonstrated via covalently bonding BP nanosheets with graphitic carbon nitride (denoted BP-CN-c). The polarized P-N covalent bonds in BP-CN-c can efficiently regulate the electron transfer from BP to graphitic carbon nitride and significantly promote the OOH* adsorption on phosphorus atoms. Impressively, the oxygen evolution reaction performance of BP-CN-c (overpotential of 350 mV at 10 mA cm−2, 90% retention after 10 h operation) represents the state-of-the-art among the reported BP-based metal-free catalysts. Additionally, BP-CN-c exhibits a small half-wave overpotential of 390 mV for oxygen reduction reaction, representing the first bifunctional BP-based metal-free oxygen catalyst. Moreover, ZABs are assembled incorporating BP-CN-c cathodes, delivering a substantially higher peak power density (168.3 mW cm−2) than the Pt/C+RuO2-based ZABs (101.3 mW cm−2). The acquired insights into interfacial covalent bonds pave the way for the rational design of new and affordable metal-free catalysts. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
  • Item
    Thiophene-Bridged Donor–Acceptor sp2-Carbon-Linked 2D Conjugated Polymers as Photocathodes for Water Reduction
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Xu, Shunqi; Sun, Hanjun; Addicoat, Matthew; Biswal, Bishnu P.; He, Fan; Park, SangWook; Paasch, Silvia; Zhang, Tao; Sheng, Wenbo; Brunner, Eike; Hou, Yang; Richter, Marcus; Feng, Xinliang
    Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water reduction, converting solar energy into environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel, requires delicate design and synthesis of semiconductors with appropriate bandgaps, suitable energy levels of the frontier orbitals, and high intrinsic charge mobility. In this work, the synthesis of a novel bithiophene-bridged donor–acceptor-based 2D sp2-carbon-linked conjugated polymer (2D CCP) is demonstrated. The Knoevenagel polymerization between the electron-accepting building block 2,3,8,9,14,15-hexa(4-formylphenyl) diquinoxalino[2,3-a:2′,3′-c]phenazine (HATN-6CHO) and the first electron-donating linker 2,2′-([2,2′-bithiophene]-5,5′-diyl)diacetonitrile (ThDAN) provides the 2D CCP-HATNThDAN (2D CCP-Th). Compared with the corresponding biphenyl-bridged 2D CCP-HATN-BDAN (2D CCP-BD), the bithiophene-based 2D CCP-Th exhibits a wide light-harvesting range (up to 674 nm), a optical energy gap (2.04 eV), and highest energy occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital distributions for facilitated charge transfer, which make 2D CCP-Th a promising candidate for PEC water reduction. As a result, 2D CCP-Th presents a superb H2-evolution photocurrent density up to ≈7.9 µA cm−2 at 0 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, which is superior to the reported 2D covalent organic frameworks and most carbon nitride materials (0.09–6.0 µA cm−2). Density functional theory calculations identify the thiophene units and cyano substituents at the vinylene linkage as active sites for the evolution of H2. © 2020 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH
  • Item
    The impact of ultraviolet laser excitation during Raman spectroscopy of hexagonal boron nitride thin films
    (Chichester [u.a.] : Wiley, 2020) Karim, Marwa; Lopes, Joao Marcelo J.; Ramsteiner, Manfred
    We utilized excitation in the ultraviolet (UV) spectral range for the study of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) thin films on different substrates by Raman spectroscopy. Whereas UV excitation offers fundamental advantages for the investigation of h-BN and heterostructures with graphene, the actual Raman spectra recorded under ambient conditions reveal a temporal decay of the signal intensity. The disappearance of the Raman signal is found to be induced by thermally activated chemical reactions with ambient molecules at the h-BN surface. The chemical reactions could be strongly suppressed under vacuum conditions which, however, favor the formation of a carbonaceous surface contamination layer. For the improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio under ambient conditions, we propose a line-scan method for the acquisition of UV Raman spectra in atomically thin h-BN, a material which is expected to play a key role in future technologies based on 2D van der Waals heterostructures. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
  • Item
    Molecularly Engineered Black Phosphorus Heterostructures with Improved Ambient Stability and Enhanced Charge Carrier Mobility
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Shi, Huanhuan; Fu, Shuai; Liu, Yannan; Neumann, Christof; Wang, Mingchao; Dong, Haiyun; Kot, Piotr; Bonn, Mischa; Wang, Hai I.; Turchanin, Andrey; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Shaygan Nia, Ali; Yang, Sheng; Feng, Xinliang
    Overcoming the intrinsic instability and preserving unique electronic properties are key challenges for the practical applications of black phosphorus (BP) under ambient conditions. Here, it is demonstrated that molecular heterostructures of BP and hexaazatriphenylene derivatives (BP/HATs) enable improved environmental stability and charge transport properties. The strong interfacial coupling and charge transfer between the HATs and the BP lattice decrease the surface electron density and protect BP sheets from oxidation, resulting in an excellent ambient lifetime of up to 21 d. Importantly, HATs increase the charge scattering time of BP, contributing to an improved carrier mobility of 97 cm2 V-1 s-1 , almost three times of the pristine BP films, based on noninvasive THz spectroscopic studies. The film mobility is an order of magnitude larger than previously reported values in exfoliated 2D materials. The strategy opens up new avenues for versatile applications of BP sheets and provides an effective method for tuning the physicochemical properties of other air-sensitive 2D semiconductors.
  • Item
    Large-Area Single-Crystal Graphene via Self-Organization at the Macroscale
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Ta, Huy Quang; Bachmatiuk, Alicja; Mendes, Rafael Gregorio; Perello, David J.; Zhao, Liang; Trzebicka, Barbara; Gemming, Thomas; Rotkin, Slava V.; Rümmeli, Mark H.
    In 1665 Christiaan Huygens first noticed how two pendulums, regardless of their initial state, would synchronize. It is now known that the universe is full of complex self-organizing systems, from neural networks to correlated materials. Here, graphene flakes, nucleated over a polycrystalline graphene film, synchronize during growth so as to ultimately yield a common crystal orientation at the macroscale. Strain and diffusion gradients are argued as the probable causes for the long-range cross-talk between flakes and the formation of a single-grain graphene layer. The work demonstrates that graphene synthesis can be advanced to control the nucleated crystal shape, registry, and relative alignment between graphene crystals for large area, that is, a single-crystal bilayer, and (AB-stacked) few-layer graphene can been grown at the wafer scale. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH