Cargando…

Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications

The unique layered morphology of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures give rise to a blended set of electrochemical properties from the 2D sheet components. Herein an overview of their potential in energy storage systems in place of precious metals is conducted. The most recent progress on vdW elect...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Blackstone, Chance, Ignaszak, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8269904/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34279324
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14133754
_version_ 1783720689387175936
author Blackstone, Chance
Ignaszak, Anna
author_facet Blackstone, Chance
Ignaszak, Anna
author_sort Blackstone, Chance
collection PubMed
description The unique layered morphology of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures give rise to a blended set of electrochemical properties from the 2D sheet components. Herein an overview of their potential in energy storage systems in place of precious metals is conducted. The most recent progress on vdW electrocatalysis covering the last three years of research is evaluated, with an emphasis on their catalytic activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This analysis is conducted in pair with the most active Pt-based commercial catalyst currently utilized in energy systems that rely on the above-listed electrochemistry (metal–air battery, fuel cells, and water electrolyzers). Based on current progress in HER catalysis that employs vdW materials, several recommendations can be stated. First, stacking of the two types vdW materials, with one being graphene or its doped derivatives, results in significantly improved HER activity. The second important recommendation is to take advantage of an electronic coupling when stacking 2D materials with the metallic surface. This significantly reduces the face-to-face contact resistance and thus improves the electron transfer from the metallic surface to the vdW catalytic plane. A dual advantage can be achieved from combining the vdW heterostructure with metals containing an excess of d electrons (e.g., gold). Despite these recent and promising discoveries, more studies are needed to solve the complexity of the mechanism of HER reaction, in particular with respect to the electron coupling effects (metal/vdW combinations). In addition, more affordable synthetic pathways allowing for a well-controlled confined HER catalysis are emerging areas.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8269904
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82699042021-07-10 Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications Blackstone, Chance Ignaszak, Anna Materials (Basel) Review The unique layered morphology of van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures give rise to a blended set of electrochemical properties from the 2D sheet components. Herein an overview of their potential in energy storage systems in place of precious metals is conducted. The most recent progress on vdW electrocatalysis covering the last three years of research is evaluated, with an emphasis on their catalytic activity towards the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This analysis is conducted in pair with the most active Pt-based commercial catalyst currently utilized in energy systems that rely on the above-listed electrochemistry (metal–air battery, fuel cells, and water electrolyzers). Based on current progress in HER catalysis that employs vdW materials, several recommendations can be stated. First, stacking of the two types vdW materials, with one being graphene or its doped derivatives, results in significantly improved HER activity. The second important recommendation is to take advantage of an electronic coupling when stacking 2D materials with the metallic surface. This significantly reduces the face-to-face contact resistance and thus improves the electron transfer from the metallic surface to the vdW catalytic plane. A dual advantage can be achieved from combining the vdW heterostructure with metals containing an excess of d electrons (e.g., gold). Despite these recent and promising discoveries, more studies are needed to solve the complexity of the mechanism of HER reaction, in particular with respect to the electron coupling effects (metal/vdW combinations). In addition, more affordable synthetic pathways allowing for a well-controlled confined HER catalysis are emerging areas. MDPI 2021-07-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8269904/ /pubmed/34279324 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14133754 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Blackstone, Chance
Ignaszak, Anna
Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications
title Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications
title_full Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications
title_fullStr Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications
title_full_unstemmed Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications
title_short Van der Waals Heterostructures—Recent Progress in Electrode Materials for Clean Energy Applications
title_sort van der waals heterostructures—recent progress in electrode materials for clean energy applications
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8269904/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34279324
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ma14133754
work_keys_str_mv AT blackstonechance vanderwaalsheterostructuresrecentprogressinelectrodematerialsforcleanenergyapplications
AT ignaszakanna vanderwaalsheterostructuresrecentprogressinelectrodematerialsforcleanenergyapplications