Simple eco-friendly synthesis of the surfactant free SnS nanocrystal toward the photoelectrochemical cell application

Abstract

A simple, low cost, non-toxic and eco-friendly pathway for synthesizing efficient sunlight-driven tin sulfide photocatalyst was studied. SnS nanocrystals were prepared by using mechanical method. The bulk SnS was obtained by evaporation of SnS nanocrystal solution. The synthesized samples were characterized by using XRD, SEM, TEM, UV-vis, and Raman analyses. Well crystallized SnS nanocrystals were verified and the electrochemical characterization was also performed under visible light irradiation. The SnS nanocrystals have shown remarkable photocurrent density of 7.6 mA cm−2 under 100 mW cm−2 which is about 10 times larger than that of the bulk SnS under notably stable operation conditions. Furthermore, the SnS nanocrystals presented higher stability than the bulk form. The IPCE(Incident photon to current conversion efficiency) of 9.3% at 420 nm was obtained for SnS nanocrystal photoanode which is strikingly higher than that of bulk SnS, 0.78%. This work suggests that the enhancement of reacting area by using SnS nanocrystal absorbers could give rise to the improvement of photoelectrochemical cell efficiency.

A Novel Thermochemical Metal Halide Treatment for High-Performance Sb2Se3 Photocathodes

“…Therefore, cheap and eco-friendly wide-bandgap metal oxides such as TiO 2 , BiVO 4 , or Fe 2 O 3 are considered inappropriate for the bottom electrode, requiring a narrow bandgap semiconductor. Over the last decades, different cost-effective metal chalcogenides such as Nanomaterials 2021, 11,52 2 of 14 tin sulfide (SnS, E g~1 .3 eV) [6,14] and copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (CZTS, E g~1 .5 eV) [10,15] or metal oxide materials, e.g., CuFeO 2 (E g~1 .5 eV) [16] have been tried with limited success. Although the optoelectronic properties of CZTS give the impression of being suitable for the bottom photoelectrode, the low photocorrosion stability restrains its applicability in commercial PEC water splitting devices [10].…”

Benchmark performance of low-cost Sb2Se3 photocathodes for unassisted solar overall water splitting

“…the formation of undesirable detrimental phases during processing, could pose a major obstacle to large-scale commercialisation. In recent years, various low-cost semiconductors have emerged, such as Cu 2 S (E g~1 .5 eV) 13 , CuFeO 2 (E g~1 .5 eV) 14 , CuBi 2 O 4 (E g~1 .7 eV) 15 , CuSbS 2 (E g~1 .5 eV) 16 , and SnS (E g~1 .3 eV) 17 . However, none of them have satisfied all the requirements for an ideal semiconductor for PEC water splitting.…”

Nanostructured Bi2Se3-Decorated TiSe2 Pyramids on Ti Foil for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

“…It has been reported that the large sheet-like morphology of layered 2D materials such as MoS 2 , SnS, SnSe, SnS 2 , etc. and their heterojunctions show high photocatalytic (PC) performance. − The layered TiSe 2 has a higher work function (φ = 5.4 eV) than most of semiconductors, which can achieve better charge separation through constructing an electron bridge by making a supported layer coupled with another photoactive material. Once a photoelectron is generated in the photocatalyst, TiSe 2 could serve as an ideal electron sink and/or electron transport bridge to facilitate charge separation, leading to enhanced performance of the overall water-splitting reaction. , In a recent study, Kovalska et al reported the PEC/PC properties of tantalum disulfide (TaS 2 ) that belongs to the same family of TiSe 2 by using a three-electrode PEC setup in 0.5 M Na 2 SO 4 electrolyte under different laser light sources .…”