https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-021-00169-w
Regular Article - Solid State and Materials
Electronic structure and enhanced photocatalytic properties in 
/GeC van der Waals heterostructure
1
School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, 250376, Jinan, China
2
Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technical Center of Light Manipulations, Institute of Materials and Clean Energy, Shandong Normal University, 250376, Jinan, China
f
yxb@sdnu.edu.cn
g
renjf@sdnu.edu.cn
Received:
27
May
2021
Accepted:
19
July
2021
Published online:
3
August
2021
Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) show great potential applications in the field of electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this work, first-principles calculations under hybrid HSE06 functional are performed to explore the electronic and optical properties of 
vdWH. Our results show that the vdWH owns a direct band gap of 2.73 eV, which is smaller than that of GeC monolayer. Meanwhile, this vdWH shows improved ability to absorb visible light and high-energy photons compared with the and the GeC monolayers. The valence band maximum (VBM) potential of is lower than that of GeC, which means that the vdWH has better oxidation than that of the GeC monolayer. On the other hand, the vdWH also satisfies the requirement for photocatalytic overall water splitting. These findings indicate that vdWH is a promising candidate for optoelectronic devices and photocatalysis.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
