Liuqing Pang

One-step hydrothermal synthesis of monolayer MoS2 quantum dots for highly efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Designing MoS2 nanocatalysts with ultrasmall size and few layers is an effective strategy to enhance their electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, uniform MoS2 quantum dots (QDs) are synthesized by a novel and facile hydrothermal route. Transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy measurements show that the resulting products possess a monolayer thickness with an average size of about 3.6 nm. Benefiting from the abundance of exposed catalytic edge sites, as well as the excellent intrinsic conductivity of the monolayer structure, the MoS2 QDs showed excellent catalytic activity with a low overpotential of approximately 160 mV and a small Tafel slope of 59 mV dec−1, which made it a promising HER electrocatalyst for practical applications.

Thinness- and Shape-Controlled Growth for Ultrathin Single-Crystalline Perovskite Wafers for Mass Production of Superior Photoelectronic Devices

Thinness-controlled perovskite wafers are directly prepared using a geometry-regulated dynamic-flow reaction system. It is found that the wafers are a superior material for photodetectors with a photocurrent response ≈350 times higher than that made of microcrystalline thin films. Moreover, the wafers are compatible with mass production of integrated circuits.

Solar-to-Hydrogen Efficiency of 9.5 % by using a Thin-Layer Platinum Catalyst and Commercial Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

A photoelectrochemical system was set up with commercial triple‐junction solar cells to split water into hydrogen. To minimize the Pt loading and material cost and to maintain a high catalytic activity, a thin Pt layer on a high‐surface‐area Ni foam was used to catalyze the hydrogen evolution reaction. The solar‐to‐hydrogen efficiency measured from the hydrogen gas evolved is as high as 9.5 %.