Production of SnS₂ Nanostructure as Improved Light-Assisted Electrochemical Water Splitting

Tin disulfide (SnS₂) has gained a lot of interest in the field of converting solar energy into chemical fuels in light-assisted electrochemical water splitting due to its visible-light band gap and high electronic mobility. However, further decreasing the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs and increasing the density of active states at the valence band edge of the photoelectrodes were a critical problem. Here, we were successful in fabricating the super-thin SnS₂ nanostructure by a hydrothermal and solution etching method. The super-thin SnS₂ nanostructure as a photo-electrocatalytic material exhibited low overpotential of 0.25 V at the current density of -10 mA·cm^-2 and the potential remained basically unchanged after 1000 cycles in an H₂SO₄ electrolyte solution, which was better than that of the SnS₂ nanosheet and SnS/SnS₂ heterojunction nanosheet. These results show the potential application of super-thin SnS₂ nanostructure in electrochemical/photo-electrocatalytic field.