Issue 34, 2018, Issue in Progress

Efficient charge separation and visible-light response in bilayer HfS2-based van der Waals heterostructures

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) hafnium disulfide (HfS2) has been synthesized and is expected to be a promising candidate for photovoltaic applications, and at the same time the hexagonal BN sheet (h-BN) and graphene-like C3N4 sheet (g-C3N4) have also been fabricated and are expected to be applied in photocatalysis. In this work, we employ hybrid density functional theory to investigate HfS2-based van der Waals (vdW) heterojunctions for highly efficient photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. HfS2/h-BN and HfS2/g-C3N4 heterostructures with direct bandgaps and efficient charge separation are both typical type-II semiconductors and have potential as photovoltaic structures for solar power. Moreover, compared with h-BN and g-C3N4 single-layers, HfS2/h-BN heterostructures with 6% tensile strain and HfS2/g-C3N4 heterostructures with 9% tensile strain have moderate bandgaps, whose optical absorption is obviously enhanced in the ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) light range and whose bandedges are suitable for photocatalytic water splitting. HfS2/h-BN heterostructures with 6% applied strain, being different from HfS2/g-C3N4 heterostructures with 9% strain, possess a direct bandgap and show complete separation of the photoinduced electron–hole pairs. Thus the HfS2/h-BN heterojunction with 6% strain has bright prospects for use in visible light photocatalytic water splitting to produce hydrogen.

Graphical abstract: Efficient charge separation and visible-light response in bilayer HfS2-based van der Waals heterostructures

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Apr 2018
Accepted
27 Apr 2018
First published
23 May 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2018,8, 18889-18895

Efficient charge separation and visible-light response in bilayer HfS2-based van der Waals heterostructures

B. Wang, X. Luo, J. Chang, X. Chen, H. Yuan and H. Chen, RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 18889 DOI: 10.1039/C8RA03047B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements