2D Energy Nanomaterials at atomic scale

Jordi Arbiol^a^,^b, Ting Zhang^a, Zhifu Liang^a, Xu Han^a, Sara Martí-Sánchez^a

^aCatalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Campus de la, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici ICN2, Av. de Serragalliners, s/n,, Bellaterra, Spain

^bICREA, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, Barcelona, Spain

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2021 (NFM21)

#NCFun21. Fundamental Processes in Nanocrystals and 2D Materials

Online, Spain, 2021 October 18th - 22nd

Organizers: Brandi Cossairt and Jonathan De Roo

Invited Speaker, Jordi Arbiol, presentation 037
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2021.037
Publication date: 23rd September 2021

Technology at the nanoscale has become one of the main challenges in science as new physical effects appear and can be modulated at will. Especially 2D nanomaterials can be designed and engineered in order to improve their performance and efficiency for energy and environmental applications. In this way, a proper selection of defects, grain boundaries and surfaces, or the right selection of dopants allow a major increase on the properties of a new generation of (photo)electrocatalysts.

In the present work, by using powerful advanced electron microscopy related techniques, we will move to the atomic scale in order to visualize the beauty of such nanostructures. Modified nanostructures as support for single atom catalysts with a great enhancement on lithium-sulphur batteries stability and performance or CO2 Reduction will be shown [1]. Nanoengineered atom-thin transition metal dichalcogenides (MoS2 and WS2) showing a high density of grain boundaries acting as efficient active sites for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) will be also studied at the atomic scale [2]. A glimpse on the latest single atom catalysts developed in the group for CO2 Reduction (CO2RR) will be also shown [3]. Atomic resolution electron microscopy analyses will help us to visualize such fancy nanostructures and allow us to create 3D atomic models in order to understand not only the growth mechanisms implied, but also to be used as input models for further DFT simulations, which will allow us to gain knowledge on the novel catalytic mechanisms achieved.

We will show our latest results on direct visualization and modelling of nanomaterials at atomic scale, which will help to understand their growth mechanisms (sometimes complex) and also correlate their chemical properties ((photo)electrocatalytic) at sub-nanometer scale with their atomic scale structure.

References:

[1] He, Y.; Tang, O.; Hu, Z.; He, Q.; Zhu, C.; Wang, L.; Zeng, Q.; Golani, P.; Gao, G.; Fu, W.; Huang, Z.; Gao, C.; Xia, J.; Wang, X.; Wang, X.; Zhu, C.; Ramasse, Q.M.; Zhang, A.; An, B.; Zhang, Y.; Martí-Sánchez, S.; Morante, J.R.; Wang, L.; Tay, B.K.; Yakobson, B.I.; Trampert, A.; Zhang, H.; Wu, M.; Wang, Q.J.; Arbiol, J.; Liu, Z. Engineering grain boundaries at the 2D limit for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Nature Commun. 2020, 11, 57.

[2] Liang, Z.; Yang, D.; Tang, P.; Zhang, C.; Jacas Biendicho, J.; Zhang, Y.; Llorca, J.; Wang, X.; Li, J.; Heggen, M.; David, J.; Dunin-Borkowski, R.E.; Zhou, Y.; Morante, J.R.; Cabot, A.; Arbiol, J. Atomically dispersed Fe in C2N based Catalyst as Sulfur Host for Efficient Lithium-Sulfur Batteries. Adv. Ener. Mater. 2021 11, 2003507.

[3] Zhang, T.; Han, X.; Liu, H.; Biset-Peiró, M.; Zhang, X.; Tan, P.; Tang, P.; Zheng, L.; Yang, B.; Morante, J.R.; Arbiol, J. Quasi-Double-Star Nickel and Iron Active Sites for High-Efficient Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction. Ener. Environ. Sci. 2021 DOI: 10.1039/D1EE01592C.

Acknowledgements:

ICN2 acknowledges funding from Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 327 and the Spanish MINECO coordinated project NANOGEN (PID2020-116093RB-C43). ICN2 is supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO (Grant No. SEV-2017-0706) and is funded by the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya. Part of the present work has been performed in the framework of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Materials Science PhD program. TZ and XH has received funding from the CSC-UAB PhD scholarship program. ZL acknowledges funding from MINECO SO FPI PhD grant (SEV-2013-0295-17-1). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 823717 – ESTEEM3.

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