Strain-Induced Ferroelectric Heterostructure Catalysts of Hydrogen Production through Piezophototronic and Piezoelectrocatalytic System.

Guo, Syuan-Lin; Lai, Sz-Nian; Wu, Jyh Ming · ACS Nano · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

In this work, we discover a piezoelectrocatalytic system composed of a ferroelectric heterostructure of BaTiO<sub>3</sub> (BTO)@MoSe<sub>2</sub> nanosheets, which exhibit piezoelectric potential (piezopotential) coupling with electrocatalyzed effects by a strain-induced piezopotential to provide an internal bias to the catalysts' surface; subsequently, the catalytic properties are substantially altered to enable the formation of activity states. The H<sub>2</sub> production rate of BTO@MoSe<sub>2</sub> for the piezoelectrocatalytic H<sub>2</sub> generation is 4533 μmol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup>, which is 206% that of TiO<sub>2</sub>@MoSe<sub>2</sub> for piezophototronic (referred to as piezophotocatalytic process) H<sub>2</sub> generation (∼2195.6 μmol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup>). BTO@MoSe<sub>2</sub> presents a long-term H<sub>2</sub> production rate of 21.2 mmol g<sup>-1</sup> within 8 h, which is the highest recorded value under piezocatalytic conditions. The theoretical and experimental results indicate that the ferroelectric BTO acts as a strain-induced electric field generator while the few-layered MoSe<sub>2</sub> is facilitating piezocatalytic redox reactions on its active sites. This is a promising method for environmental remediation and clean energy development.