Single atom catalysis with atomic-thin protection layer

• Main Author: Lim, Carissa Xin Yi
• Other Authors: Liu Zheng
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/157579
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In the world where there is a rising demand for energy and an accelerating climate change crisis, researchers are racing to find viable solutions for generating clean and green energy. In view of this rising trend of using clean and green energy, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a energy-generating solution worth developing as hydrogen is clean, energy-efficient, renewable, and abundant. Single-atom Pt catalyst has great potential for this solution, but is unstable. Monolayer hBN can be utilised as atomic-thin protection layer to increase the stability of single-atom Pt catalyst in HER. However, current methods for deriving large-area, monolayer hBN have poor efficiency with low-yield. This warrants a search for a better method of exfoliating large-area monolayer hBN. PVA-assisted method have been successfully implemented in exfoliating graphene into large-area monolayers in high yield. Hence, this project aims to explore the potential of PVA-assisted methods in exfoliating high-yields of large-area monolayer hBN. The project also hopes to pioneer in such methods, and set standard procedures to act as a guide for future research scientists and students to work on this research area. hBN were exfoliated into layers of various thickness using PVA-assisted methods, and the layers are examined under microscope to find likely large-area monolayer hBN. Various characterisation techniques were employed to verify that the chosen sample was a monolayer hBN. Microscope photos are subsequently analysed using a code, which helps to accelerate the analysis work and thus hasten the research process. The conclusion is PVA-assisted method is indeed much better method than current methods for attaining large-area monolayer hBN, and therefore deserve further exploration and development in future research.