Atomically Precise Gold Nanoclusters Accelerate Hydrogen Evolution over MoS₂ Nanosheets: The Dual Interfacial Effect

Abstract

Hydrogen generation via electrocatalytic water splitting holds great promise for future energy revolution. It is desirable to design abundant and efficient catalysts and achieve mechanistic understanding of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, this paper reports a strategy for improving HER performance of molybdenum disulfide (MoS ) via introducing gold nanoclusters as a cocatalyst. Compared to plain MoS nanosheets, the Au (SR) /MoS nanocomposite exhibits enhanced HER activity with a small onset potential of -0.20 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode) and a higher current density of 59.3 mA cm at the potential of -0.4 V. In addition to the interfacial interaction between nanoclusters and MoS , the interface between the Au core and the surface ligands (thiolate vs selenolate) is also discovered to distinctly affect the catalytic performance. This work highlights the promise of metal nanoclusters in boosting the HER performance via tailoring the interfacial electronic interactions between gold nanoclusters and MoS nanosheets, as well as the interface between metal core and surface ligands.

Photo/electrocatalysis and photosensitization using metal nanoclusters for green energy and medical applications

“…4D and E). 33 The Au 25 /MoS 2 showed a current density 1.79 times higher than that of MoS 2 at À0.4 V, indicating that the improvement of HER activity of MoS 2 nanosheet was caused by loading Au 25 NCs. Xray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed that a negative shi of $0.4 eV in the Mo 3d orbital energy was induced by loading Au 25 NCs.…”

Recent Advances in First‐Row Transition Metal Clusters for Photocatalytic Water Splitting

“…Recently, the heterometallic lanthanide‐transition metal (3d–4f) clusters were regarded as promising photocatalytic materials due to the synergistic effect between lanthanide and transition ions . Moreover, much effort has shown that loading clusters with a semiconductor can modulate the surface electronic structure and be used to probe deeply into the mechanism of the catalytic performance at the atomic level . Therefore, the 3d‐metal clusters are promising photocatalysts for water splitting.…”

“…[13] Moreover, much effort has shown that loading clusters with a semiconductor can modulate the surface electronic structure and be used to probe deeply into the mechanism of the catalytic performance at the atomic level. [14][15][16] Therefore, the 3d-metal clusters are promising photocatalysts for water splitting. It should be emphasized that, to prove the catalysis of cluster itself, the stability and integrity of the metal clusters during photocatalytic reaction should be verified through various characterization methods, such as the UV-vis absorption, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), trace metal tests of the reaction solution (for example, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses, ICP), postcatalytic structural integrity checks including high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analyses, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES)/near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy, and so on.…”

Gold Nanoclusters as Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion

“…Fine nanoparticle catalysts suitable for the HER [88][89][90][91][92], OER [93][94][95], and ORR [96][97][98][99][100][101] have been developed based on theoretical predictions of activity volcano plots using various metals and alloy nanoparticles (NPs). Au n NCs have recently been observed to possess catalytic activity for the HER, OER, and ORR [77, [102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116] (Figure 1). Therefore, Au n NCs are expected to become a model catalyst even in such an energy conversion system.…”