Mohnish Pandey

Two-Dimensional Metal Dichalcogenides and Oxides for Hydrogen Evolution: A Computational Screening Approach.

We explore the possibilities of hydrogen evolution by basal planes of 2D metal dichalcogenides and oxides in the 2H and 1T class of structures using the hydrogen binding energy as a computational activity descriptor. For some groups of systems like the Ti, Zr, and Hf dichalcogenides the hydrogen bonding to the 2H structure is stronger than that to the 1T structure, while for the Cr, Mo, and W dichalcogenides the behavior is opposite. This is rationalized by investigating shifts in the chalcogenide p levels comparing the two structures. We find that usually for a given material only at most one of the two phases will be active for the hydrogen evolution reaction; however, in most cases the two phases are very close in formation energy, opening up the possibility for stabilizing the active phase. The study points to many new possible 2D HER materials beyond the few that are already known.

Defect-Tolerant Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Localized electronic states formed inside the band gap of a semiconductor due to crystal defects can be detrimental to the materials optoelectronic properties. Semiconductors with a lower tendency to form defect induced deep gap states are termed defect-tolerant. Here we provide a systematic first-principles investigation of defect tolerance in 29 monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) of interest for nanoscale optoelectronics. We find that the TMDs based on group VI and X metals form deep gap states upon creation of a chalcogen (S, Se, Te) vacancy, while the TMDs based on group IV metals form only shallow defect levels and are thus predicted to be defect-tolerant. Interestingly, all the defect sensitive TMDs have valence and conduction bands with a very similar orbital composition. This indicates a bonding/antibonding nature of the gap, which in turn suggests that dangling bonds will fall inside the gap. These ideas are made quantitative by introducing a descriptor that measures the degree of similarity of the conduction and valence band manifolds. Finally, the study is generalized to nonpolar nanoribbons of the TMDs where we find that only the defect sensitive materials form edge states within the band gap.

Band structure engineered layered metals for low-loss plasmonics

Plasmonics currently faces the problem of seemingly inevitable optical losses occurring in the metallic components that challenges the implementation of essentially any application. In this work, we show that Ohmic losses are reduced in certain layered metals, such as the transition metal dichalcogenide TaS2, due to an extraordinarily small density of states for scattering in the near-IR originating from their special electronic band structure. On the basis of this observation, we propose a new class of band structure engineered van der Waals layered metals composed of hexagonal transition metal chalcogenide-halide layers with greatly suppressed intrinsic losses. Using first-principles calculations, we show that the suppression of optical losses lead to improved performance for thin-film waveguiding and transformation optics.

Sulfide perovskites for solar energy conversion applications: computational screening and synthesis of the selected compound LaYS3

One of the key challenges in photoelectrochemical water splitting is to identify efficient semiconductors with band gaps of the order of ∼2 eV to operate as the large-band-gap component in water splitting tandem devices. Here, we address this challenge by extensive computational screening of ternary sulfides followed by synthesis and confirmation of the properties of one of the most promising materials. The screening focusses on materials with ABS3 composition taking both perovskite and non-perovskite structures into consideration, and the material selection is based on descriptors for thermodynamic stability, light absorption, charge mobility, and defect tolerance. One of the most promising candidates identified is LaYS3. This material was synthesized directly in thin-film form demonstrating its stability, crystal structure, light absorption, and strong photoluminescence. These data confirms its potential applicability in tandem photoelectrochemical devices for hydrogen production.

Size-selective electrocatalytic activity of (Pt)n/MoS2 for oxygen reduction reaction

In the present work, we have investigated the electrocatalytic activity of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), O2 + 4H+ + 4e− → 2H2O, for (Pt)n clusters (n = 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12) adsorbed on semiconducting (2H) and metallic (1T) MoS2 monolayers using first principles density functional theory. We have considered four elementary reactions involved in ORR within a unified electrochemical thermodynamic framework and the corresponding Gibbs adsorption free energies of the key intermediates (*OOH, *O, *OH) associated with each step have been calculated. The results indicate that the reduction of adsorbed hydroxyl (*OH) to water (*OH + H+ + e− → H2O) is the bottleneck step in the ORR process. The adsorption free energy of *OH (ΔG*OH) is found to be the thermodynamic descriptor for the present systems. Eventually, the ORR activity has been described as a function of ΔG*OH and a volcano plot predicting (Pt)7/2H-MoS2 as the best ORR catalyst amongst the (Pt)n/MoS2 heterosystems with an overpotential value of 0.33 V has been established. Our finding proposes a new promising electrocatalyst towards better activity for ORR with very small amount of Pt loading.

The Computational 2D Materials Database: high-throughput modeling and discovery of atomically thin crystals

We introduce the Computational 2D Materials Database (C2DB), which organises a variety of structural, thermodynamic, elastic, electronic, magnetic, and optical properties of around 1500 two-dimensional materials distributed over more than 30 different crystal structures. Material properties are systematically calculated by state-of-the art density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory (G

Chapter 3:Computational Screening of Light-absorbing Materials for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

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New Light-Harvesting Materials Using Accurate and Efficient Bandgap Calculations

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Band Gap Tuning and Defect Tolerance of Atomically Thin Two-Dimensional Organic–Inorganic Halide Perovskites

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Two-Dimensional MXenes as Catalysts for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution: A Computational Screening Study

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