High-Throughput Screening of 2D Photocatalyst Heterostructures with Suppressed Electron-Hole Recombination for Solar Water Splitting

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Yadav, Shivanand, Modi, Jainandan Kumar, Ahammed, Raihan, Bhadoria, B. S., Chauhan, Yogesh S., Agarwal, Amit, Bhowmick, Somnath
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Yadav, Shivanand
Modi, Jainandan Kumar
Ahammed, Raihan
Bhadoria, B. S.
Chauhan, Yogesh S.
Agarwal, Amit
Bhowmick, Somnath
author_facet Yadav, Shivanand
Modi, Jainandan Kumar
Ahammed, Raihan
Bhadoria, B. S.
Chauhan, Yogesh S.
Agarwal, Amit
Bhowmick, Somnath
contents Efficient and scalable photocatalysts for solar water splitting remain a critical challenge in renewable energy research. The work presents a high-throughput first-principles discovery of two-dimensional (2D) type-II van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) optimized for visible-light-driven photocatalytic water splitting. We screened 482 heterostructures constructed from 60 experimentally realizable 2D monolayers and identified 148 stable type-II vdWHs with spatially separated valence and conduction band edges, out of which 65 satisfy the thermodynamic redox conditions for water splitting over a broad pH range. Among these, the best two, MoTe2/Tl2O and MoSe2/WSe2, exhibit a high visible-light absorption coefficient exceeding 0.6X10^6 cm-1, resulting in a high power conversion efficiency of 2%. Quantum kinetic analysis of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) reveals nearly barrierless free energy profiles across multiple adsorption sites. Our study further reveals that intrinsic interlayer electric fields in these vdWHs drive directional charge separation, suppressing carrier recombination. Our results establish a design framework for using type-II 2D heterostructures as tunable and experimentally accessible 2D photocatalysts for efficient hydrogen production.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_17483
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle High-Throughput Screening of 2D Photocatalyst Heterostructures with Suppressed Electron-Hole Recombination for Solar Water Splitting
Yadav, Shivanand
Modi, Jainandan Kumar
Ahammed, Raihan
Bhadoria, B. S.
Chauhan, Yogesh S.
Agarwal, Amit
Bhowmick, Somnath
Materials Science
Efficient and scalable photocatalysts for solar water splitting remain a critical challenge in renewable energy research. The work presents a high-throughput first-principles discovery of two-dimensional (2D) type-II van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) optimized for visible-light-driven photocatalytic water splitting. We screened 482 heterostructures constructed from 60 experimentally realizable 2D monolayers and identified 148 stable type-II vdWHs with spatially separated valence and conduction band edges, out of which 65 satisfy the thermodynamic redox conditions for water splitting over a broad pH range. Among these, the best two, MoTe2/Tl2O and MoSe2/WSe2, exhibit a high visible-light absorption coefficient exceeding 0.6X10^6 cm-1, resulting in a high power conversion efficiency of 2%. Quantum kinetic analysis of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) reveals nearly barrierless free energy profiles across multiple adsorption sites. Our study further reveals that intrinsic interlayer electric fields in these vdWHs drive directional charge separation, suppressing carrier recombination. Our results establish a design framework for using type-II 2D heterostructures as tunable and experimentally accessible 2D photocatalysts for efficient hydrogen production.
title High-Throughput Screening of 2D Photocatalyst Heterostructures with Suppressed Electron-Hole Recombination for Solar Water Splitting
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.17483