Abstract
Among the novel class of mono-elemental two-dimensional (2D) materials, termed Xenes, phosphorene is emerging as a great promise for its peculiar chemical and physical properties. This review collects a selection of the recent breakthroughs that are related to the application of phosphorene in catalysis and electrocatalysis. Noteworthy, thanks to its intrinsic Lewis basic character, pristine phosphorene turned out to be more efficient and more selective than other non-metal catalysts, in chemical processes as the electroreduction of nitrogen to ammonia or the alkylation of nucleophiles with esters. Once functionalized with transition metals nanoparticles (Co, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ag, Au), its catalytic activity has been evaluated in several processes, mainly hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions. Under visible light irradiation, it has shown a great improvement of the activity, demonstrating high potential as a photocatalyst.
Highlights
The wide field of two-dimensional (2D) materials chemistry, which in the last fifteen years has grown and developed, offers new opportunities in heterogeneous catalysis
Once functionalized with transition metals nanoparticles (Co, Ni, Pd, Pt, Ag, Au), its catalytic activity has been evaluated in several processes, mainly hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions
It is currently possible to distinguish between elemental 2D materials [1] or polynuclear compounds, such as hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN), transition metal dichalcogenides (MX2 ) [2], the so-called MXenes [3], 2D alloys [4], and many others
Summary
The wide field of two-dimensional (2D) materials chemistry, which in the last fifteen years has grown and developed, offers new opportunities in heterogeneous catalysis. It is relevant that the surface homogeneity of 2D materials as compared to 3D-catalytic systems make it easier, at least in principle, to tackle the problem of surface characterization (i.e., via commonly available HRTEM or atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques) and its computational modelling This provides the opportunity to combine experimental and theoretical approaches to devise and implement new catalysts and rationalize their catalytic mechanism. Despite being known for a long time (its first description dates back to 1914 [5]) black phosphorus remained scarcely considered until 2014, when a sudden and rapidly growing interest started to arise around this material following its reported exfoliation [6,7] This was largely due to the unique electronic and optical properties of the material, as both theoretical and experimental studies revealed that black phosphorus is a semiconductor with a tunable, layer-dependent bandgap, going from 0.3 eV in the bulk material to about 2.0 eV in the monolayer. Sideviews and (c) top viewslayered of puckered crystal structure of blackThe phosphorus
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