Designing
a MoS2 catalyst having a large number of active
sites and high site activity enables the catalytic activity toward
the hydrogen evolution reaction to be improved. Herein, we report
the synthesis of a low-cost and catalytically active immobilized single
molecular molybdenum disulfide on carbonized polyacrylonitrile (MoS2-cPAN) electrocatalyst. From the extended X-ray absorption
fine structure spectra analysis, we found that the as-prepared material
has no metal–metal scattering and it resembles MoS2 with a molecular state. Meanwhile, the size of the molecular MoS2 has been estimated to be about 1.31 nm by high-angle annular
dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy. A low coordination
number and maximum utilization of the single molecular MoS2 surface enable MoS2-cPAN to demonstrate electrochemical
performance significantly better than that of bulk MoS2 by two orders of exchange current density (j
o) and turnover frequency to the hydrogen evolution.
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