Black Si Photocathode with a Conformal and Amorphous MoSx Catalytic Layer Grown Using Atomic Layer

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 14(12) 14137–14145

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.1c22273

Dae Woong Kim, Jin-Young Jung, Dae Hyun Kim, Jin-Young Yu, Jae Hyuck Jang, Hyun Soo Jin, Tae Jun Seok, Yo-Sep Min*, Jung-Ho Lee*, and Tae Joo Park*

Abstract

We demonstrated how the photoelectrochemical (PEC) performance was enhanced by conformal deposition of an amorphous molybdenum sulfide (a-MoSx) thin film on a nanostructured surface of black Si using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The a-MoSx is found to predominantly consist of an octahedral structure (S-deficient metallic phase) that exhibits high electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction with a Tafel slope of 41 mV/dec in an acid electrolyte. The a-MoSx has a smaller work function (4.0 eV) than that of crystalline 2H-MoS2 (4.5 eV), which induces larger energy band bending at the p-Si surface, thereby facilitating interface charge transfer. These features enabled us to achieve an outstanding kinetic overpotential of ∼0.2 V at 10 mA/cm2 and an onset potential of 0.27 V at 1 mA/cm2. Furthermore, the a-MoSx layer provides superior protection against corrosion of the Si surface, enabling long-term PEC operation of more than 50 h while maintaining 87% or more performance. This work highlights the remarkable advantages of the ALD a-MoSx layer and leads to a breakthrough in the architectural design of PEC cells to ensure both high performance and stability.