Publication detail

Two-Dimensional Functionalized Germananes as Photoelectrocatalysts

NG, S. ŠTURALA, J. VYSKOČIL, J. LAZAR, P. MARTINCOVÁ, J. PLUTNAR, J. PUMERA, M.

Original Title

Two-Dimensional Functionalized Germananes as Photoelectrocatalysts

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

Succeeding graphene, monoelemental two-dimensional (2D) materials such as germanene and silicene, coined as "Xenes", have attracted vast scientific and technological interests. Adding covalently bonded hydrogen on both sides of germanene leads to germanane (i.e., hydrogen-terminated germanene, GeH). Further, the covalent functionalization of germanane allows the tuning of its physical and chemical properties. Diverse variants of germananes have been synthesized, but current research is primarily focused on their fundamental properties. As a case in point, their applications as photo- and electrocatalysts in the field of modern energy conversion have not been explored. Here, we prepare 2D germanene-based materials, specifically germanane and germananes functionalized by various alkyl chains with different terminal groups.germanane with methyl, propyl, hydroxypropyl, and 2-(methoxycarbonyl)ethyl.and investigate their structural, morphological, optical, electronic, and electrochemical properties. The bond geometries of the functionalized structures, their formation energies, and band gap values are investigated by density functional theory calculations. The functionalized germananes are tested as photoelectrocatalysts in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and photo-oxidation of water. The performance of the germananes is influenced by the functionalized groups, where the germanane with -CH2CH2CH2OH termination records the lowest HER overpotentials and with -H termination reaches the highest photocurrent densities for water oxidation over the entire visible spectral region. These positive findings serve as an overview of organic functionalization of 2D germananes that can be expanded to other "Xanes" for targeted tuning of the optical and electronic properties for photo- and electrochemical energy conversion applications.

Keywords

group 14; layered materials; covalent functionalization; photoelectrochemistry; density functional theory; band gap; formation energy

Authors

NG, S.; ŠTURALA, J.; VYSKOČIL, J.; LAZAR, P.; MARTINCOVÁ, J.; PLUTNAR, J.; PUMERA, M.

Released

27. 7. 2021

Publisher

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Location

WASHINGTON

ISBN

1936-086X

Periodical

ACS Nano (e-ISSN)

Year of study

15

Number

7

State

United States of America

Pages from

11681

Pages to

11693

Pages count

13

URL

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.1c02327

BibTex

@article{BUT172547,
  author="Siow Woon {Ng} and Jiří {Šturala} and Jan {Vyskočil} and Petr {Lazar} and Jana {Martincová} and Jan {Plutnar} and Martin {Pumera}",
  title="Two-Dimensional Functionalized Germananes as Photoelectrocatalysts",
  journal="ACS Nano (e-ISSN)",
  year="2021",
  volume="15",
  number="7",
  pages="11681--11693",
  doi="10.1021/acsnano.1c02327",
  issn="1936-086X",
  url="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.1c02327"
}