Heteroatom‐Doped Black Phosphorus and Its Application: A Review

Laser-Synthesized Ru-Anchored Few-Layer Black Phosphorus for Superior Hydrogen Evolution: Role of Acoustic Levitation

Electrochemical water splitting, driven by processed catalysts, is the most reasonable method for hydrogen production. This study demonstrates an activation phenomenon with ruthenium (Ru) nanoclusters on few-layered black phosphorus (BP), greatly enhancing the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Efficient BP exfoliation was achieved using acoustic levitators and pulsed laser irradiation in liquids (PLIL), yielding charge-transfer Ru-nanoclusters on modulated surfaces. Various PLIL parameters were examined for the optimal BP sheet size. After ruthenization, Ru's d-band center facilitated hydrogen adsorption via Ru-H bonding. Synergy between BP's charge-carrier properties and Ru's active sites boosted HER kinetics with an ultralow overpotential of 84 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in KOH. Additionally, the RuO2 || RuBP-2 electrolyzer demonstrated remarkable overall water splitting performance at ∼1.60 V at 10 mA/cm2. These results highlight the pivotal role of metal nanoclusters on exfoliated BP surfaces and offer a refined strategy for high-density electrocatalysts in energy conversion.

Highly Specific Antibiotic Detection on Water-Stable Black Phosphorus Field-Effect Transistors

Two-dimensional (2D) black phosphorus (BP) has been reported to have appealing semiconducting properties as the sensing channel in field-effect transistor (FET) sensors. However, the intrinsic instability of BP in water greatly hinders its application, and little is known about its sensing performance and mechanism in aqueous medium. Herein, a water-stable BP FET sensor for antibiotic detection is reported. A novel surface engineering strategy with Ag⁺ coordination and melamine cyanurate (MC) supramolecular passivation is utilized to enhance the stability and transistor performance of BP. With molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) as the detection probe for tetracycline, the BP_Ag(+)/MC/MIPs sensor shows high sensitivity to tetracycline with a detection limit of 7.94 nM and a quick response within 6 s as well as high selectivity against other antibiotics with similar molecular structures. A new sensing mechanism relying on the conjugation effect of the probe structure is proposed, and new knowledge about alkalinity-enhanced and ionic strength-related response from the electrostatic gating effect is given based on the solution chemistry impact study. This work offers an efficient surface engineering strategy to enable the application of 2D BP for antibiotic detection in aqueous medium and presents a new sensing mechanism in chemical analysis by FET sensors.

Surface and Interface Coordination Chemistry Learned from Model Heterogeneous Metal Nanocatalysts: From Atomically Dispersed Catalysts to Atomically Precise Clusters

The surface and interface coordination structures of heterogeneous metal catalysts are crucial to their catalytic performance. However, the complicated surface and interface structures of heterogeneous catalysts make it challenging to identify the molecular-level structure of their active sites and thus precisely control their performance. To address this challenge, atomically dispersed metal catalysts (ADMCs) and ligand-protected atomically precise metal clusters (APMCs) have been emerging as two important classes of model heterogeneous catalysts in recent years, helping to build bridge between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. This review illustrates how the surface and interface coordination chemistry of these two types of model catalysts determines the catalytic performance from multiple dimensions. The section of ADMCs starts with the local coordination structure of metal sites at the metal-support interface, and then focuses on the effects of coordinating atoms, including their basicity and hardness/softness. Studies are also summarized to discuss the cooperativity achieved by dual metal sites and remote effects. In the section of APMCs, the roles of surface ligands and supports in determining the catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability of APMCs are illustrated. Finally, some personal perspectives on the further development of surface coordination and interface chemistry for model heterogeneous metal catalysts are presented.

Modulation of the electronic properties and photocatalytic performance of black phase monolayer GeSe by noble metal doping

Possible doping positions of noble metal atoms on the surface of monolayer GeSe.