The Weyl Semimetals MIrTe_4 (M = Nb, Ta) as Efficient Catalysts for Dye-Sensitized Hydrogen Evolution

摘要

The prevalent global energy crisis calls for searching viable pathways forgenerating green hydrogen as an alternative energy resource. Dye-sensitizedphotocatalytic water splitting is a feasible solution to produce green hydrogen.However, identifying suitable catalysts has been one of the bottlenecksin driving dye-sensitized photocatalysis efficiently. In this work, a newclass of electrocatalysts is reported based on the layered Weyl semimetalsMIrTe_4 (M=Nb, Ta) for the Eosin Y (EY)-sensitized hydrogen evolution reaction(HER). NbIrTe_4 and TaIrTe_4 exhibit HER activities of ≈18 000 and 14 000 μmolg~（?1） respectively, after 10 h of irradiation with visible light. Time-dependentUV-Vis spectroscopy and high-pressure liquid chromatography coupledwith mass spectrometry analysis shed light on the reaction dynamics andenable a deeper understanding of the observed trend in hydrogen evolutionrates for MIrTe_4. MIrTe_4 semimetals outperform transition metal-based Weylsemimetals in terms of catalytic HER activity using EY as photosensitizer andtriethanolamine as the sacrificial agent. It is hypothesized that the topologyrelatedband inversion in MIrTe4 Weyl semimetals promotes a high density ofM d-states near the Fermi level, driving their high catalytic performance. Thisstudy introduces a new class of layered Weyl semimetals as efficient catalysts,and provides perspectives for designing topology-enhanced catalysts.