Bifunctional Monolayer WSe₂/Graphene Self-Stitching Heterojunction Microreactors for Efficient Overall Water...

Developing efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts in neutral media to avoid the deterioration of electrodes or catalysts under harsh environments has become the ultimate goal in electrochemical water splitting. This work demonstrates the fabrication of an on-chip bifunctional two-dimensional (2D) monolayer (ML) WSe₂/graphene heterojunction microreactor for efficient overall water splitting in a neutral medium (pH = 7). Through the synergistic atomic growth of the metallic Cr dopant and graphene stitching contact on the 2D ML WSe₂, the bifunctional WSe₂/graphene heterojunction microreactor consisting of a full-cell configuration demonstrates excellent performance for overall water splitting in a neutral medium. Atomic doping of metallic Cr atoms onto the 2D ML WSe₂ effectively facilitates the charge transfer at the solid-liquid interface. In addition, the direct growth of the self-stitching graphene contact with the 2D WSe₂ catalyst largely reduces the contact resistance of the microreactor and further improves the overall water splitting efficiency. A significant reduction of the overpotential of nearly 1000 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 at the Cr-doped WSe₂/graphene heterojunction microreactor compared to the ML pristine WSe₂ counterpart is achieved. The bifunctional WSe₂/graphene self-stitching heterojunction microreactor is an ideal platform to investigate the fundamental mechanism of emerging bifunctional 2D catalysts for overall water splitting in a neutral medium.