Enhancement in Photoelectrochemical Performance of Optimized Amorphous SnS2 Thin Film Fabricated through Atomic Layer Deposition

it was soon replaced by other materials. Research on the fundamental properties and preparation of TMDC monolayers in solution (1986), [8] on single-crystal substrates in ultrahigh vacuum (2001), [9] and in an accessible way using mechanical exfoliation [10] (2005) followed. It was the discovery of graphene in 2004 [11] with its ever expanding list of unique and exciting properties, phenomena, and potential applications [12] that amassed broad attention to 2D materials and resulted in the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov. Tremendous efforts have been put toward synthesis and applications of graphene, including the billion euro Graphene Flagship project funded by the European Union. [13,14] Graphene is a semimetal, however, and the need to have semiconducting materials for many crucial applications, in particular in electronics, has led researchers to search for other 2D materials. The scientific community turned to TMDCs following breakthroughs in observation of unique thickness-dependent properties, [15,16] monolayer synthesis using chemical vapor deposition (CVD), [17,18] and demonstration of high-performance semiconductor devices [19-21] in 2010-2013 (Figure 1). Indeed, in 2013 the number of scientific publications on TMDCs, in particular MoS 2 , nearly tripled over 2012, and the strong growth has continued to date, fueled by advances in synthesis, new devices, and exciting physical phenomena. The explosive growth in MoS 2 research has also expanded to other TMDCs, [22] resulting in yet new phenomena and potential applications being found. [23-26] It is now clear that TMDCs are remarkable in many ways. Their layered crystal structure gives rise to fundamental physics not seen in 3D materials, which enables novel devices and applications. [25,26,32,34-36] The layered structure also gives TMDCs their highly anisotropic properties, extremely high specific surface areas, possibility to intercalate different species between the layers, and stability as ultrathin sheets down to three atomic layers thick. The TMDC family contains dozens of different materials from semiconductors to semimetals, metals, and even superconductors. [5,22,25,34] However, TMDC research is still mostly in the early discovery stages and the investigations of TMDCs largely continue using flakes produced by mechanical exfoliation of bulk crystals. [10,26] Unfortunately, this method cannot be scaled up for practical 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are among the most exciting materials of today. Their layered crystal structures result in unique and useful electronic, optical, catalytic, and quantum properties. To realize the technological potential of TMDCs, methods depositing uniform films of controlled thickness at low temperatures in a highly controllable, scalable, and repeatable manner are needed. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a chemical gas-phase thin film deposition method capable of meeting these challenges. In this review, the applications evaluated for ALD TMDCs are systematically...

Section: Photoelectrocatalytic Water Splittingmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Applications Of Atomic Layer Deposited 2d Metal Dichalcogenidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hu et al. [ 249 ] also reported SnS 2 /FTO electrodes that could be used as either photocathode or photoanode, as described in the previous section.…”

Section: Applications Of Atomic Layer Deposited 2d Metal Dichalcogenidesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Plasmonics [248] 60-140 25-100 nm films (amorp.) PEC [249] 160 20-80 nm films (≈10 nm) SC [250] Sn(OAc) 4 + H 2 S 150 (200-350, H 2 S) 2-11 ML films (as-dep. amorp., ann.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Atomic Layer Deposition of 2D Metal Dichalcogenides for Electronics, Catalysis, Energy Storage, and Beyond

Mattinen

Leskelä

Ritala

2021

“…MoS 2 deposited on CdS nanorods, [ 49 ] and SnS 2 deposited as an amorphous film. [ 50 ] Both procedures applied H 2 S as a precursor for sulfide, dissolved in an inert carrier gas. Regardless of the material and deposition procedure, thermal annealing is necessary for all ALD‐deposited light absorbers.…”

Section: Light Absorbermentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic Layer Deposition for the Photoelectrochemical Applications

Pastukhova

Mavrič

2021

Substantial progress has been made in the photoelectrochemical (PEC) field to understand the photoelectrode behavior, semiconductor‐electrolyte interface, and photocorrosion, enabling new photoelectrode architectures with higher photocurrent, reduced photovoltage losses, and longer lifetime. Nevertheless, for practical PEC applications additional efforts are still needed to optimize all components of the photoelectrodes, including the light absorbing semiconductors, the layers for charge extraction, charge transfer, corrosion protection, and catalysis. In this regard, atomic layer deposition (ALD) offers new opportunities due to the monolayer‐by‐monolayer deposition approach, allowing preparation of conformal films with precisely controlled thickness and composition. As the ALD instruments are becoming widely accessible, this review aims to make an overview of the applications for photoelectrodes fabrication. The deposition of semiconductors onto flat and nano‐textured substrates, the deposition of ultrathin interlayers to ease charge transport by energy band alignment and surface states passivation, the deposition of corrosion protection layers, and finally, the possibilities for high catalyst dispersion is presented.

Nucleation Behavior of SnS₂ on Thiol Functionalized SAMs During Solution‐Based Atomic Layer Deposition

Götz,

Prihoda,

Shen

et al. 2024

Solution‐based atomic layer deposition (sALD) is an emerging technique that transfers the principle of traditional atomic layer deposition (ALD) from the gas phase into a wet chemical environment. This new preparation technique has new and unique properties and requirements. A large number of new surfaces and reactants are available to produce active 2D materials.In this work a reproducible procedure to coat silicon wafers with a densely packed monolayer of (3‐Mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) molecules is presented. These highly functionalized surfaces can be used to seed the nucleation of SnS2 in a solution‐based ALD procedure. A coating routine for the production of SnS2 is adapted from ALD to sALD and insight into the nucleation behavior of the reactands is given. X‐ray reflectometry (XRR) is used to resolve the nucleation process of SnS2 on an MPTMS self assembled monolayer (SAM) during the first three cycles of an sALD procedure. The comparison of ex situ XRR, in situ XRR, grazing incidence wide‐angle X‐ray scattering (GIWAXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy (EDX) measurements, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations find that SnS2 first forms a closed layer and then continues to grow in islands on thiol functionalized silane SAMs. Subsequent coating cycles will continue the growth of the islands laterally and in height.