2D Higher‐Metal Nitride Nanosheets for Solar Steam Generation
Lifeng Wang, Jing Shang, Guoliang Yang, Yuxi Ma, Liangzhi Kou, Dan Liŭ, Huaying Yin, Dylan Hegh, Joselito M. Razal, Weiwei Lei
Abstract
Abstract Higher‐metal (HM) nitrides are a fascinating family of materials being increasingly researched due to their unique physical and chemical properties. However, few focus on investigating their application in a solar steam generation because the controllable and large‐scale synthesis of these materials remains a significant challenge. Herein, it is reported that higher‐metal molybdenum nitride nanosheets (HM‐Mo 5 N 6 ) can be produced at the gram‐scale using amine‐functionalized MoS 2 as precursor. The first‐principles calculation confirms amine‐functionalized MoS 2 nanosheet effectively lengthens the bonds of MoS leading to a lower bond binding energy, promoting the formation of MoN bonds and production of HM‐Mo 5 N 6 . Using this strategy, other HM nitride nanosheets, such as W 2 N 3 , Ta 3 N 5 , and Nb 4 N 5 , can also be synthesized. Specifically, under one simulated sunlight irradiation (1 kW m ‐2 ), the HM‐Mo 5 N 6 nanosheets are heated to 80 °C within only ≈24 s (0.4 min), which is around 78 s faster than the MoS 2 samples (102 s/1.7 min). More importantly, HM‐Mo 5 N 6 nanosheets exhibit excellent solar evaporation rate (2.48 kg m ‐2 h ‐1 ) and efficiency (114.6%), which are 1.5 times higher than the solar devices of MoS 2 /MF.