Wafer-scale transferable molybdenum disulfide thin-film catalysts for photoelectrochemical hydrogen production

Abstract

We demonstrate that wafer-scale, transferable, and transparent thin-film catalysts based on MoS₂, which consists of cheap and earth abundant elements, can provide a low onset potential of 1 mA cm⁻² at 0.17 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode and the high photocurrent density of 24.6 mA cm⁻² at 0 V for a p-type Si photocathode. c-Domains with vertically stacked (100) planes in the transferable 2H-MoS₂ thin films, which are grown via a thermolysis method, act as active sites for the hydrogen evolution reaction, and photogenerated electrons are efficiently transported through the n-MoS₂/p-Si heterojunction.