WHIPCAT · van der Waals Heterostructures for Innovative PhotoCATalysts

van der Waals Heterostructures for Innovative PhotoCATalysts

1. WHIPCAT focuses on the fabrication and characterization of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) solids, particularly semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenide (STMD) vdW alloys and heterostructures for exploitation in visible light photo(electro)catalysis [PEC]. A new class of 2D materials, such as MoS2, WS2 & their alloys with ‘Se’ (MoS2(1-x)Se2x, WS2(1-x) Se2x) were synthesized by physical vapor transport deposition (PVT) technique. Further, WS2-Pt147 hetersostructure was fabricated using cluster beam deposition on a free standing WS2 sheet. In-particular, HAADF-STEM was performed on several batches of samples in-order to address the alloy formation as well as cluster seeding on a two dimensional (2D) atomic layer. Most of the time of the WHIPCAT project was spent on the sample preparation and HAADF imaging of 2D alloys and WS2-Pt147 system. At the same time, a custom made photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) was designed and developed for the photocatalysis studies. WHIPCAT is an interdisciplinary research project targeting applications in clean energy and environmental pollution, which are both serious challenges being faced globally today. In particular, the effective removal of organic pollutants from water is essential to providing better and safer living conditions to a large part of the world’s population. This calls for the development of new materials and new methods, which can provide clean water and a sustainable environment, and enable the universal adoption of renewable energy sources. The degradation of organic pollutants using solar irradiation is the most attractive approach to wastewater treatment. A wide variety of semiconductor photocatalysts have been developed in the last few decades for practical and commercial applications. However, semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides (STMD) and their new class of van der Waals (vdW) solids offer a radically new perspective for visible light PEC, water purification and hydrogen fuel production via water splitting, i.e electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). 2. The overall objectives of the project are shown below, which are proposed during proposal writing stage, in the form of work packages of WHIPCAT research proposal. Work Package (WP): WP1 Optimization and Growth of the STMD vdW crystals. WP2 Characterization of combinatorially stacked STMD vdW crystals. WP3 The visible light photocatalytic and PEC characteristics of the as-grown and post-processed samples of the STMD vdW clusters will be measured. WP4 Training and Dissemination activities

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