3D Semiconductor Particles Offer 2D Properties

When it comes to creating next-generation electronics, two-dimensional semiconductors have a big edge. They’re faster, more powerful and more efficient. They’re also incredibly difficult to fabricate. Three-dimensional semiconductor particles have an edge, too – many of them – given their geometrically varied surfaces. Cornell researchers have discovered that the junctures at these facet edges have 2D properties, which can be leveraged for photoelectrochemical processes – in which light is used to drive chemical reactions – that can boost solar energy conversion technologies. This research, led by Peng Chen, the Peter J.W. Debye Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, could also benefit renewable energy technologies that reduce carbon dioxide, convert nitrogen into ammonia, and produce hydrogen peroxide.