Ultra-small colloidal heavy-metal-free nanoplatelets for efficient hydrogen generation

Metal chalcogenide semiconducting nanoplatelets exhibit a broad absorption spectrum, as well as thickness-dependent optical and electronic properties. As such, they may be used as building blocks in a variety of optoelectronic devices. The direct synthesis of heavy-metal-free ultra-small sized nanoplatelets is still challenging, due to the inherent limits in existing synthetic approaches. Here, we report an efficient template-assisted cation-exchange route to synthesize heavy metal free metal chalcogenide nanoplatelets that are optically active in the near infrared. The SnSe nanoplatelets, whose lateral dimension is 6–10 nm, exhibit a quantum yield of 20%. The nanoplatelets are applied as light absorbers in a photoelectrochemical (PEC) system for hydrogen generation, leading to a saturated photocurrent density of 7.4 mA/cm2, which is a record for PEC devices using heavy metal-free colloidal quantum dots or nanoplatelets under identical measurement conditions. Our results indicate that quasi-zero-dimensional SnSe nanoplatelets hold great potential as efficient light absorbers for emerging optoelectronic technologies.