Layered transition metal selenophosphites for visible light photoelectrochemical production of hydrogen

The growing consumption of global energy has posed serious challenges to environmental protection and energy supplies. A promising solution is via introducing clean and sustainable energy sources, including photoelectrochemical hydrogen fuel production. 2D materials, such as transition metal trichalcogenphosphites (MPCh₃), are gaining more and more interest for their potential as photocatalysts. Crystals of transition metal selenophosphites, namely MnPSe₃, FePSe₃ and ZnPSe₃, were tested as photocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). ZnPSe₃ is the one that exhibited the lowest overpotential and the higher response to the light during photocurrent experiments in acidic media. For this reason, among the crystals in this work, it is the most promising for the photocatalyzed production of hydrogen.