Interface Density Engineering on Heterogeneous Molybdenum Dichalcogenides Enabling Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis and Sodium Ion Storage.

Constructing active heterointerfaces is powerful to enhance the electrochemical performances of transition metal dichalcogenides, but the interface density regulation remains a huge challenge. Herein, MoO2 /MoS2 heterogeneous nanorods are encapsulated in nitrogen and sulfur co-doped carbon matrix (MoO2 /MoS2 @NSC) by controllable sulfidation. MoO2 and MoS2 are coupled intimately at atomic level, forming the MoO2 /MoS2 heterointerfaces with different distribution density. Strong electronic interactions are triggered at these MoO2 /MoS2 heterointerfaces for enhancing electron transfer. In alkaline media, the optimal material exhibits outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performances that significantly surpass carbon-covered MoS2 nanorods counterpart (η10 : 156 mV vs 232 mV) and most of the MoS2 -based heterostructures reported recently. First-principles calculation deciphers that MoO2 /MoS2 heterointerfaces greatly promote water dissociation and hydrogen atom adsorption via the O-Mo-S electronic bridges during HER process. Moreover, benefited from the high pseudocapacitance contribution, abundant "ion reservoir"-like channels, and low Na+ diffusion barrier appended by high-density MoO2 /MoS2 heterointerfaces, the material delivers high specific capacity of 888 mAh g-1 , remarkable rate capability and cycling stability of 390 cycles at 0.1 A g-1 as the anode of sodium ion battery. This work will undoubtedly light the way of interface density engineering for high-performance electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems.

Stabilization of binder-free vanadium oxide-based oxygen electrodes using Pd clusters for Li-O2 batteries.

A binder-free electrode consisting of Pd clusters and vanadium oxide (VO) has been prepared via gas-phase-cluster beam deposition on carbon cloth. The Pd clusters largely improve the stability of the VO-Pd-based electrode, which can be reversibly and continuously cycled for more than 120 cycles in a Li-O2 based battery.

Hierarchical Ta-Doped TiO2 Nanorod Arrays with Improved Charge Separation for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation under FTO Side Illumination.

TiO2 is one of the most attractive semiconductors for use as a photoanode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water oxidation. However, the large-scale application of TiO2 photoanodes is restricted due to a short hole diffusion length and low electron mobility, which can be addressed by metal doping and surface decorating. In this paper we report the successful synthesis of hierarchical Ta doped TiO2 nanorod arrays, with nanoparticles on the top (Ta:TiO2), on F-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass by a hydrothermal method, and its application as photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water oxidation. It has been found that the incorporation of Ta5+ in the TiO2 lattice can decrease the diameter of surface TiO2 nanoparticles. Ta:TiO2-140, obtained with a moderate Ta concentration, yields a photocurrent of ∼1.36 mA cm-2 at 1.23 V vs. a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) under FTO side illumination. The large photocurrent is attributed to the large interface area of the surface TiO2 nanoparticles and the good electron conductivity due to Ta doping. Besides, the electron trap-free model illustrates that Ta:TiO2 affords higher transport speed and lower electron resistance when under FTO side illumination.

Ta-Doped porous TiO2 nanorod arrays by substrate-assisted synthesis: efficient photoelectrocatalysts for water oxidation.

Owing to its excellent chemical stability and low cost, titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been widely studied as a photoanode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. However, TiO2's practical applications in solar energy-to-synthetic fuel conversion processes have been constrained by its inherently poor ability to transport photogenerated electrons and holes. In this paper, we report Ta-doped porous TiO2 nanorod arrays on Ta foil (Ta-PTNA) that do not possess this issue and that can thus efficiently photoelectrocatalyze water oxidation, helping the production of H2 (a clean fuel) from water at the expense of solar light. The materials are synthesized by a new, facile synthetic approach involving the hydrothermal treatment of a TiO2 precursor with Ta foil, without seeds and templates, and followed by calcination of the product. Besides serving as a source of Ta dopant atoms, Ta foil is found to play a vital role in the formation of nanopores in the materials. The material obtained with hydrothermal treatment at 180 °C for 10 h (Ta-PTNA-10), in particular, affords very large photocurrent density and very high photoconversion efficiency (0.32% at 0.79 V vs. RHE, which is better than those of many previously reported photocatalysts and ∼4 times larger than that of undoped TiO2 nanorod arrays). Ta-PTNAs' remarkable PEC catalytic performance is found to be due to their nanoporous structure and high electronic conductivity.