The Ge25Se75, Ge20Se80 and Ge15Se85 thin films were deposited in specular optical quality from n-propylamine - methanol solvent mixture by spin-coating technique. As-prepared solution processed thin films were thermally stabilized to reduce the content of organic solvent residuals and optical properties, surface topography, composition, structure and chemical resistance of prepared Ge-Se thin films were studied in dependence of annealing temperature. Suitable thermal stabilization temperatures were found for each studied chalcogenide glass composition with respect to maintaining of thin films’ low surface roughness and targeted elemental composition. Stabilized thin films exhibited high refractive index, high chemical resistance, low surface roughness and structure close to source bulk glasses. The experiments proved that used n-propylamine - methanol solvent offered suitable way for preparation of high optical quality Ge-Se thin films by solution based deposition route.
2‐dimensional FeSx nanosheets of different sizes are synthesized by applying different numbers of atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycles on TiO2 nanotube layers and graphite sheets as supporting materials and used as an electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The electrochemical results confirm electrocatalytic activity in alkaline media with outstanding long‐term stability (>65 h) and enhanced catalytic activity, reflected by a notable drop in the initial HER overpotential value (up to 26 %). By using a range of characterization techniques, the origin of the enhanced catalytic activity was found to be caused by the synergistic interplay between in situ morphological and compositional changes in the 2D FeSx nanosheets during HER. Under the application of a cathodic potential in alkaline media, the as‐synthesized 2D FeSx nanosheets transformed into iron oxyhydroxide‐iron oxysulfide core‐shell nanoparticles, which exhibited a higher active catalytic surface and newly created Fe‐based HER catalytic sites.
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