Achieving highly efficient 2D SnC monolayer-based photocatalyst for water splitting <i>via</i> a synergistic strategy of S-scheme heterostructure construction and silicon doping
Dinghua Yang, Xi Zhang, Ya Nie, Hongyu Zhu, Gang Xiang
Abstract
van der Waals heterostructure (vdWHS) for highly efficient photocatalytic water splitting using first-principles calculations. The results show that the pristine vdWHS is an S-scheme heterostructure that works in acidic conditions for water splitting owing to the high energy barrier in HER. Notably, detailed further investigations show that doping Si in the SnC ML of the vdWHS can solve this high barrier problem, leading to a high-performance low-cost photocatalyst. Our work offers a convenient strategy to solve the notorious high barrier problem in HER that often troubles the SnC ML and other 2D materials such as transition metal dichalcogenide MLs for the design and fabrication of highly efficient photocatalysts.