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Formation and Photodynamic Behavior of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanosheet–Fullerene Inorganic/Organic Nanohybrids on Semiconducting Electrodes
Author(s) -
Baek Jinseok,
Umeyama Tomokazu,
Choi Wookjin,
Tsutsui Yusuke,
Yamada Hiroki,
Seki Shu,
Imahori Hiroshi
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201703699
Subject(s) - materials science , nanosheet , heterojunction , photoexcitation , transition metal , electrode , electrophoretic deposition , chemical engineering , charge carrier , composite number , nanostructure , conductivity , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , composite material , chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , engineering , physics , nuclear physics , excited state , coating
Abstract Composite films that consisted of C 60 and well‐exfoliated nanosheets of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS 2 or WS 2 , with a bulk heterojunction structure were easily fabricated onto a semiconducting SnO 2 electrode via a two‐step methodology: self‐assembly into their composite aggregates by injection of a poor solvent into a good solvent with the dispersion, and subsequent electrophoretic deposition. Upon photoexcitation, the composites on SnO 2 exhibited enhanced transient conductivity in comparison with single components of TMDs or C 60 , which demonstrates that the bulk heterojunction nanostructure of TMD and C 60 promoted the charge separation (CS). In addition, the decoration of the TMD nanosheets with C 60 hindered the undesirable charge recombination (CR) between an electron in SnO 2 and a hole in the TMD nanosheets. Owing to the accelerated CS and suppressed CR, photoelectrochemical devices based on the MoS 2 –C 60 and WS 2 –C 60 composites achieved remarkably improved incident photon‐to‐current efficiencies (IPCEs) as compared with the single‐component films. Despite more suppressed CR in WS 2 –C 60 than MoS 2 –C 60 , the IPCE value of the device with WS 2 –C 60 was smaller than that with MoS 2 –C 60 owing to its inhomogeneous film structure.