Amorphous carbon supported MoS₂nanosheets as effective catalysts for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Amorphous carbon supported MoS₂, which was elaborately prepared by using a facile hydrothermal method followed by annealing, is first employed as a catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we demonstrate a preparation strategy, by which MoS₂ and carbon materials could be formed in situ and simultaneously. The MoS₂ nanosheets are vertically formed on the carbon nanosphere, as illustrated in the scanning electron micrograph. The unique morphology can expose abundant edges of the MoS₂ layer as active sites for the HER, while the underlying amorphous carbon effectively improves the conductivity. By means of employing amorphous carbon as a substrate, an optimized catalyst was developed, which exhibited enhanced catalytic activity for the electrocatalytic HER with an onset potential as low as 80 mV, extremely large cathodic current density and excellent stability. Notably, a Tafel slope of 40 mV per decade was measured, which exceeds by far the activity of previous MoS₂ catalysts and suggests the Volmer-Heyrovsky-mechanism for the MoS₂-catalyzed HER.

Designed synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes@Cu@MoS2 hybrid as advanced electrocatalyst for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

“…Previously, various morphologies of MoS 2 such as nanoparticles [13], nanosheets [14] and nanoflowers [15] have been studied. However, to the best of our knowledge, the 3D assembled MoS 2 nanotubes with mesopores and hollow tubular architecture [16] have rarely been used in the HER.…”

Synergically Improving Light Harvesting and Charge Transportation of TiO2 Nanobelts by Deposition of MoS2 for Enhanced Photocatalytic Removal of Cr(VI)

“…Nevertheless, the rough surface of TiO2 NBs is beneficial for deposition of MoS2 precursors on the surface of TiO2 NBs. Meanwhile, in the absence of TiO2 NBs during the preparation procedure, it was found that uniform MoS2 nanotubes were formed, which does not agree well with the previous reports on prepared of layered MoS2 [32][33][34]. We elucidate that octylamine and ethanol were chosen as combined solvent, which results in curling growth of MoS2 layers and formation of nanotubes.…”

Highly efficient hydrogen evolution catalysis by MoS2–MoN/carbonitride composites derived from tetrathiomolybdate/polymer hybrids

“…As a result, tremendous efforts have been made to obtain rich-and exposed edge sites by increasing the amount of sulphur active edge sites, to improve the conductivity and diffusion properties by decreasing the restacking of the materials, and to enhance the inherent activity of MoS 2 by appropriately tuning the electronic structure of the edge (Albu-Yaron et al, 2011;Xie et al, 2013a;Wang et al, 2014). The carbon nanotube, graphene and other carbon/doping-carbon materials as support have been extensively investigated for HER due to their unique advantages, such as tunable molecular structures, abundance and strong tolerance to acid/alkaline environments (Liao et al, 2013;Zheng et al, 2014a;Younet al, 2014;Smith et al, 2014;Li et al, 2014;Yan et al, 2013a;Zhao et al, 2014;Nolan et al, 2014). Besides, Fe, Co and Ni doping was also used to improve the inherent activity of MoS 2 or MoS 3 (Bonde et al, 2008;Merki et al, 2012).…”