Search

Three new coordination polymers (CPs) constructed from the linker 1,4-di(dithiocarboxylate) (BDDTC2–)─the sulfur-analog of 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (BDC2–)─together with Mn-, Zn-, and Fe-based inorganic SBUs are reported with description of their structural and electronic properties. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction revealed structural diversity ranging from one-dimensional chains in [Mn(BDDTC)(DMF)2] (1) to two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb sheets observed for [Zn2(BDDTC)3][Zn(DMF)5(H2O)] (2). Gas adsorption experiments confirmed a 3D porous structure for the mixed-valent material [Fe2(BDDTC)2(OH)] (3). 3contains a 1:1 ratio of Fe2+/3+ions, as evidenced by 57Fe Mössbauer, X-band EPR, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Its empirical formula was established by elemental analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, infrared vibrational spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in lieu of elusive single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. In contrast to the Mn- and Zn-based compounds 1and 2, the Fe2+/3+CP 3showed remarkably high electrical conductivity of 5 × 10–3S cm–1(according to van der Pauw measurements), which is within the range of semiconducting materials. Overall, our study confirms that sulfur derivatives of typical carboxylate linkers (e.g., BDC) are suitable for the construction of electrically conducting CPs, due to acceptedly higher covalency in metal–ligand bonding compared to the electrically insulating carboxylate CPs or metal-organic frameworks. At the same time, the direct comparison between insulating CPs 1and 2with CP 3emphasizes that the electronic structure of the metal is likewise a crucial aspect to construct electrically conductive materials.

Understanding the chemical and electronic properties of point defects in two-dimensional materials, as well as their generation and passivation, is essential for the development of functional systems, spanning from next-generation optoelectronic devices to advanced catalysis. Here, we use synchrotron-based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with submicron spatial resolution to create sulfur vacancies (SVs) in monolayer MoS2and monitor their chemical and electronic properties in situduring the defect creation process. X-ray irradiation leads to the emergence of a distinct Mo 3d spectral feature associated with undercoordinated Mo atoms. Real-time analysis of the evolution of this feature, along with the decrease of S content, reveals predominant monosulfur vacancy generation at low doses and preferential disulfur vacancy generation at high doses. Formation of these defects leads to a shift of the Fermi level toward the valence band (VB) edge, introduction of electronic states within the VB, and formation of lateral pn junctions. These findings are consistent with theoretical predictions that SVs serve as deep acceptors and are not responsible for the ubiquitous n-type conductivity of MoS2. In addition, we find that these defects are metastable upon short-term exposure to ambient air. By contrast, in situoxygen exposure during XPS measurements enables passivation of SVs, resulting in partial elimination of undercoordinated Mo sites and reduction of SV-related states near the VB edge. Correlative Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurements confirm our findings of localized SV generation and passivation, thereby demonstrating the connection between chemical, structural, and optoelectronic properties of SVs in MoS2.

Crystal orientations are closely related to the behavior of photogenerated charge carriers and are vital for controlling the optoelectronic properties of perovskite solar cells. Herein, we propose a facile approach to reveal the effect of lattice plane orientation distribution on the charge carrier kinetics via constructing CsBr-doped mixed cation perovskite phases. With grazing-incidence wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements, we investigate the crystallographic properties of mixed perovskite films at the microscopic scale and reveal the effect of the extrinsic CsBr doping on the stacking behavior of the lattice planes. Combined with transient photocurrent, transient photovoltage, and space-charge-limited current measurements, the transport dynamics and recombination of the photogenerated charge carriers are characterized. It is demonstrated that CsBr compositional engineering can significantly affect the perovskite crystal structure in terms of the orientation distribution of crystal planes and passivation of trap-state densities, as well as simultaneously facilitate the photogenerated charge carrier transport across the absorber and its interfaces. This strategy provides unique insight into the underlying relationship between the stacking pattern of crystal planes, photogenerated charge carrier transport, and optoelectronic properties of solar cells.

The photoelectrochemical performance of thin film photoelectrodes can be impacted by deviations from the stoichiometric composition, both at the macroscale and at the nanoscale. This issue is especially pronounced for the class of ternary compounds that are currently investigated for simultaneously achieving the optoelectronic characteristics and chemical stability required for solar fuel generation. Here, we combine macroscopic photoelectrochemical testing with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) to reveal relationships between photoelectrochemical activity, nanoscale morphology, and local chemical composition in copper vanadate (CVO) thin films as a model system. For films with varying Cu/(Cu + V) ratios around the ideal stoichiometry of stoiberite Cu5V2O10, AFM resolves submicrometer morphology variations, which correlate with variations of the Cu content resolved by STXM. Both stoichiometric and Cu-deficient films exhibit a clear photoresponse, which indicates electronic tolerance to reduced Cu content. While both films exhibit homogeneous O and V content, they are also characterized by local regions of Cu enrichment and depletion that extend beyond individual grains. By contrast, Cu-rich photoelectrodes exhibit a tendency toward CuO secondary phase formation and a significantly reduced photoelectrochemical activity, indicating a significantly poor electronic tolerance to Cu-enrichment. These findings highlight that the average film composition at the macroscale is insufficient for defining structure–function relationships in complex ternary compounds. Rather, correlating microscopic variations in chemical composition to macroscopic photoelectrochemical performance provides insights into photocatalytic activity and stability that are otherwise not apparent from pure macroscopic characterization.

The binary Ta–N chemical system includes several compounds with notable prospects in microelectronics, solar energy harvesting, and catalysis. Among these, metallic TaN and semiconducting Ta3N5have garnered significant interest, in part due to their synthetic accessibility. However, tantalum sesquinitride (Ta2N3) possesses an intermediate composition and largely unknown physical properties owing to its metastable nature. Herein, Ta2N3is directly deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering and its optoelectronic properties are characterized. Combining these results with density functional theory provides insights into the critical role of oxygen in both synthesis and electronic structure. While the inclusion of oxygen in the process gas is critical to Ta2N3formation, the resulting oxygen incorporation in structural vacancies drastically modifies the free electron concentration in the as-grown material, thus leading to a semiconducting character with a 1.9 eV bandgap. Reducing the oxygen impurity concentration viapost-synthetic ammonia annealing increases the conductivity by seven orders of magnitude and yields the metallic characteristics of a degenerate semiconductor, consistent with theoretical predictions. Thus, this inverse oxygen doping approach – by which the carrier concentration is reduced by the oxygen impurity – offers a unique opportunity to tailor the optoelectronic properties of Ta2N3for applications ranging from photochemical energy conversion to advanced photonics.

Two-dimensional materials with engineered composition and structure will provide designer materials beyond conventional semiconductors. However, the potentials of defect engineering remain largely untapped, because it hinges on a precise understanding of electronic structure and excitonic properties, which are not yet predictable by theory alone. Here, we utilize correlative, nanoscale photoemission spectroscopy to visualize how local introduction of defects modifies electronic and excitonic properties of two-dimensional materials at the nanoscale. As a model system, we study chemical vapor deposition grown monolayer WS2, a prototypical, direct gap, two-dimensional semiconductor. By cross-correlating nanoscale angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, core level spectroscopy, and photoluminescence, we unravel how local variations in defect density influence electronic structure, lateral band alignment, and excitonic phenomena in synthetic WS2monolayers.

Chemical transformations that occur on photoactive materials, such as photoelectrochemical water splitting, are strongly influenced by the surface properties as well as by the surrounding environment. Herein, we elucidate the effects of oxygen and water surface adsorption on band alignment, interfacial charge transfer, and charge-carrier transport by using complementary Kelvin probe measurements and photoconductive atomic force microscopy on bismuth vanadate. By observing variations in surface potential, we show that adsorbed oxygen acts as an electron-trap state at the surface of bismuth vanadate, whereas adsorbed water results in formation of a dipole layer without inducing interfacial charge transfer. The apparent change of trap state density under dry or humid nitrogen, as well as under oxygen-rich atmosphere, proves that surface adsorbates influence charge-carrier transport properties in the material. The finding that oxygen introduces electronically active states on the surface of bismuth vanadate may have important implications for understanding functional characteristics of water splitting photoanodes, devising strategies to passivate interfacial trap states, and elucidating important couplings between energetics and charge transport in reaction environments.

The surface chemistry of 1,6-dibromo-3,8-diiodopyrene (Br2I2Py) is comparatively studied on Au(111) versus Ag(111) surfaces under ultrahigh vacuum conditions by a combination of high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray spectroscopy. The chemical state of the molecular networks, that is, the dehalogenation and the possible formation of organometallic intermediates, is assessed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In addition, pyrene tilt angles are quantified by carbon K-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure experiments. Upon room-temperature (RT) deposition of Br2I2Py onto Au(111), only partial deiodination was found, and STM revealed the coexistence of ordered arrangements of both intact Br2I2Py molecules and organometallic dimers as well as few larger aggregates. Further annealing to 100 °C triggered full deiodination followed by the formation of organometallic chains of otherwise still brominated molecules. By contrast, on Ag(111), iodine is fully and bromine is partly dissociated upon RT deposition of Br2I2Py. The initially disordered organometallic aggregates can be reorganized into more ordered structures by mild annealing at 125 °C. Yet, the conversion of the organometallic intermediates into well-defined cross-linked quasi 2D covalent networks was neither possible on Au(111) nor on Ag(111). This is attributed to the large steric hindrance in the covalently linked adsorbed state.

The crystallization behavior of perovskite films has a profound influence on the resulting defect densities, charge carrier dynamics and photovoltaic performance. Herein, we introduce ionic liquids into the perovskite component to tailor the crystal growth of perovskite films from a disordered to a preferential corner-up orientation and accordingly increase the charge carrier mobility to accelerate electron transport and extraction. Using time-resolved measurements, we probe the charge carrier generation, transport and recombination behavior in these films and related devices. We find the ionic liquid-containing samples exhibit lower defects, faster charge carrier transport and suppressed non-radiative recombination, contributing to higher efficiency and fill factor. Via operandograzing-incidence small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements, we observe a light-induced lattice compression and grain fragmentation in the control devices, whereas the ionic liquid-containing devices exhibit a slight light-induced crystal reconstitution and stronger tolerance against illumination. Under ambient conditions, the non-encapsulated device with the pyrrolidinium-based ionic compound (Pyr14BF4) maintains 97% of its initial efficiency after 4368 h.

Self-assembly of 1,3,5-tris(4-mercaptophenyl)benzene (TMB), a 3-fold symmetric, thiol-functionalized aromatic molecule, was studied on Au(111) with the aim of realizing extended Au–thiolate-linked molecular architectures. The focus lay on resolving thermally activated structural and chemical changes by a combination of microscopy and spectroscopy. Thus, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) provided submolecularly resolved structural information, while the chemical state of sulfur was assessed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Directly after room-temperature deposition, only less well ordered structures were observed. Mild annealing promoted the first structural transition into ordered molecular chains, partly organized in homochiral molecular braids. Further annealing led to self-similar Sierpiński triangles, while annealing at even higher temperatures again resulted in mostly disordered structures. Both the irregular aggregates observed at room temperature and the chains were identified as metal–organic assemblies, whereby two out of the three intermolecular binding motifs are energetically equivalent according to density functional theory (DFT) simulations. The emergence of Sierpiński triangles is driven by a chemical transformation, i.e., the conversion of coordinative Au–thiolate to covalent thioether linkages, and can be further understood by Monte Carlo simulations. The great structural variance of TMB on Au(111) can on one hand be explained by the energetic equivalence of two binding motifs. On the other hand, the unexpected chemical transition even enhances the structural variance and results in thiol-derived covalent molecular architectures.

On-surface Ullmann coupling is a versatile and appropriate approach for the bottom-up fabrication of covalent organic nanostructures. In two-dimensional networks, however, the kinetically controlled and irreversible coupling leads to high defect densities and a lack of long-range order. To derive general guidelines for optimizing reaction parameters, the structural quality of 2D porous covalent networks was evaluated for different preparation protocols. For this purpose, polymerization of an iodine- and bromine-functionalized precursor was studied on Au(111) by scanning tunneling microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. By taking advantage of the vastly different temperature thresholds for C–Br and C–I cleavage, two different polymerization routes were compared – hierarchical and direct polymerization. The structural quality of the covalent networks was evaluated for different reaction parameters, such as surface temperatures, heating rates, and deposition rates by statistical analysis of STM data. Experimental results are compared to Monte Carlo simulations.

Self-assembly and thermally activated surface chemistry of 1,3,5-benzenetrithiol (BTT) on Cu(111) are studied under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions by different complementary surface sensitive techniques. Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) patterns acquired at room temperature and during subsequent heating reveal irreversible phase transitions between in total four different long-range-ordered phases termed α-phase to δ-phase. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the different phases facilitates the identification of major chemical changes for the first phase transition from α- to β-phase, whereas in the succeeding phase transitions, no significant chemical shifts are observed anymore. The structural characterization of each phase is carried out by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and adsorption geometries of the phenyl rings are derived from C 1s near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS). The combination of the results from this array of experimental techniques leads to a consistent picture of the various phases and underlying processes. Upon room-temperature deposition, BTT fully deprotonates and planar-adsorbed molecules self-assemble into an ordered monolayer. With a temperature onset of 300 K, the carbon–sulfur bonds start dissociating. Sulfur forms a copper sulfide superstructure, whereas the organic remainders form disordered structures. Further heating converts an initial metastable and rarely observed (√3 × √3)R± 30° copper sulfide superstructure into the more stable and well-known (√7 × √7)R± 19.1° polymorph.

Enabling economic development while promoting a carbon neutral society requires management of natural resources and of energetic costs of technological processes. The quest for novel, renewable energy materials urges the use of earth-abundant resources, green synthetic processes with non-hazardous chemicals, while maintaining the desired functional properties. Here, we propose an optimized process for the sustainable low temperature synthesis of chemically modified TiO2with enhanced visible absorption and improved electrical conductivity. The optimized synthetic procedure consists in oxidizing a titanium foil in hydrogen peroxide at 80 °C for 24 h. These reaction temperatures and duration are sufficient to yield a uniform nanostructure with high porosity. Complementary characterization techniques confirm the formation of an amorphous TiO2phase accompanied by the formation of a surface layer with hydroxyl and peroxo groups. This surface layer could introduce mid gap defect states and improve the absorption properties of this material in the visible range. Accordingly, the photocatalytic property of the modified TiO2show improved activity toward degradation of Rhodamine B dye with respect to stoichiometric TiO2. Electrochemical measurements, including Mott–Schottky analysis and impedance spectroscopy, show that H2O2-treated Ti foil exhibits an improved charge transfer kinetics and shorter charge transfer time (up to ten times lower) with respect to stoichiometric TiO2. Overall, the results presented in this work support the application of green synthetic routes for the fabrication of functional materials for renewable energy processes.