School of Mechanical Engineering/SAINT Prof. Kim, Taesung‧ Dr. Kim, Hyeong-U

Development of New Method for Synthesis of Stable 1T-WS₂ using PE-CVD 

Prof. Taesung Kim in Mechanical Engineering/SAINT and Dr. Hyeong-U Kim in SAINT have developed the synthesis technique of various 2-dimensional (2D) material using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). A related research paper, ‘Wafer-scale of 1T-WS₂ film for efficient and stable hydrogen evolution reaction.’ was published and featured on the back cover of ‘Small’ (IF: 10.85, JCR <10%).

Professor Kim’s group reported the synthesis of large-scale MoS₂ which is one of the typical transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) using PECVD at low temperature (<150 ^oC) for the first time in the world (Advanced Materials, 2015). Furthermore, a metal oxide group, α-MoO₃ (Nanotechnology, 2017) and MoS₂-Graphene heterostructure (Applied Surface Science, 2019) were synthesized for various applications.

As 1T-phase WS₂ (1T-WS₂) typically has meta-stable structure with metallic properties, which can lead to excellent electrochemical catalytic properties as alternative materials for platinum, Prof. Taesung Kim group and Prof. Jae-Hyun Lee (Ajou University) group worked for the synthesis of stable 1T-WS₂ with nano grain size for application of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The plasma can generate a nano grain size of 1T-WS₂ with high surface energy so it can be stable in atmospheric pressure and room temperature. It was stable with 1,000 cycles and 1 month of exposure in the air for HER.

Professor Kim mentioned that PECVD enables the wafer-scale synthesis of stable 1T-WS₂ with high uniformity at low temperature (<150 ^oC) and this can be one of the critical technologies for future Hydron energy industry.

(Currently, Dr. Hyeong-U Kim continues his research career at Northwestern University under the guidance of Professor Mark C. Hersam working on the synthesis of TMDs using MOCVD for memristor application.)

※ Related Papers

1) Low-Temperature Synthesis of Large-Scale Molybdenum Disulfide Thin Films Directly on a Plastic Substrate Using Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (Advanced Materials, 27, 2015, 5223-5229)

(First Author: Dr. Chisung Ahn / Corresponding: Prof. Changgu Lee, Prof. Taesung Kim)

2) Highly uniform wafer-scale synthesis of α-MoO₃ by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (Nanotechnology, 28, 2017, 175601)

(First: Dr. Hyeong-U Kim / Corresponding: Prof. Taesung Kim)

3) Low-temperature wafer-scale growth of MoS₂-graphene heterostructures (Applied Surface Science, 470, 2019, 129-134)

(First: Dr. Hyeong-U Kim / Corresponding: Prof. Jae-Hyun Lee, Prof. Taesung Kim)

4) Wafer-Scale and Low-Temperature Growth of 1T-WS₂ Film for Efficient and Stable Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (Small, 16, 2020, 1905000)

(First: Dr. Hyeong-U Kim, Vinit Kanade, Mansu Kim / Corresponding: Prof. Jae-Hyun Lee, Prof. Taesung Kim)

○ Prof. Taesung Kim (Corresponding author), Dr. Hyeong-U Kim (1^st author)