Ball-milled MoS with graphene shows enhanced catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction.

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is an important phenomenon in water splitting. Consequently, the development of an active, earth-abundant, and inexpensive HER catalyst is highly desired. MoS has drawn considerable interest as an HER catalyst because it is composed of non-precious metal and exhibits high catalytic activity in the nanosheet form.

Carbon dioxide adsorption and conversion to methane and ethane on hydrogen boride sheets.

Hydrogen boride (HB) sheets are metal-free two-dimensional materials comprising boron and hydrogen in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio. In spite of the several advancements, the fundamental interactions between HB sheets and discrete molecules remain unclear. Here, we report the adsorption of CO and its conversion to CH and CH using hydrogen-deficient HB sheets.

Direct Observation of Photoinduced Charge Separation at Transition-Metal Nitride-Semiconductor Interfaces.

Optically excited hot carriers from metallic nanostructures forming metal-semiconductor heterostructures are advantageous for enhancing photoelectric conversion in the sub-band gap photon energy regime. Plasmonic gold has been widely used for hot carrier excitation, but recent works have demonstrated that plasmonic transition-metal nitrides have higher efficiencies in injecting hot electrons to adjacent n-type semiconductors and are more cost-effective. To collect direct evidence of hot carrier excitation from nanostructures, imaging of hot carriers is essential.

Marimo-Bead-Supported Core-Shell Nanocomposites of Titanium Nitride and Chromium-Doped Titanium Dioxide as a Highly Efficient Water-Floatable Green Photocatalyst.

The release of untreated industrial wastewater creates a hazardous impact on the environment. In this regard, the development of an environmentally friendly catalyst is of paramount importance. Here, we report a highly efficient and reusable core-shell TiN/SiO/Cr-TiO (TSCT) photocatalyst that is composed of SiO-cladded titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles (NPs) decorated with Cr-doped TiO NPs for the removal of organic contaminants from water.

Sub-Band Gap Photodetection from the Titanium Nitride/Germanium Heterostructure.

Photoexcited hot carriers through nonradiative decay offer new opportunities for harnessing longer wavelength light. Here, we have demonstrated a hot-carrier-mediated sub-band gap photodetection in germanium-based planar heterojunction devices. The planar samples that form in situ germanium/titanium nitride (Ge/TiN) interfaces are fabricated by the dc sputtering technique, and the generation of photocurrent by near-infrared (NIR) light illumination is confirmed up to 2600 nm, well exceeding the absorption limit of Ge.

Demonstration of temperature-plateau superheated liquid by photothermal conversion of plasmonic titanium nitride nanostructures.

A liquid can be heated up above its boiling point, known as superheating. In this metastable state, the liquid temperature keeps increasing as the liquid is being heated. In contrast, we experimentally demonstrate that the temperature of superheated water can be kept constant even at elevated heating power.

Enhanced Solar Light Absorption and Photoelectrochemical Conversion Using TiN Nanoparticle-Incorporated CN-C Dot Sheets.

In this work, a promising strategy to increase the broadband solar light absorption was developed by synthesizing a composite of metal-free carbon nitride-carbon dots (CN-C dots) and plasmonic titanium nitride (TiN) nanoparticles (NPs) to improve the photoelectrochemical water-splitting performance under simulated solar radiation. Hot-electron injection from plasmonic TiN NPs to CN played a role in photocatalysis, whereas C dots acted as catalysts for the decomposition of HO to O. The use of C dots also eliminated the need for a sacrificial reagent and prevented catalytic poisoning.