VS₂: an efficient catalyst for an electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction in an acidic medium

Abstract

In view of preparing efficient electrocatalysts for energy conversion applications, we have developed an eco-friendly, cost effective, single step method for the scalable synthesis of VS2 and its reduced graphene oxide composite VS4/rGO. Furthermore, the electrocatalytic performances of the catalysts have been studied toward the hydrogen evolution reaction in an acid medium (0.1 M H2SO4). Presumably, the large exposed electrochemical active surface area (27.7 cm2) and hexagonal crystal lattice of VS2 result in its dominating catalytic performance over that of the linear VS4/rGO composite. Also, a VS2 modified electrode was demonstrated to have better stability (with a negligible change in the overpotential even after 10 h and 43 h of continuous electrolysis) with a notably low Tafel slope (36 mV dec-1, close to that of commercial Pt/C) and onset potential (15 mV vs. RHE) with robust durability for long term application. A preliminary study on the photoelectrochemical activities of VS2 showed a significant decrease in the charge transfer resistance upon illumination of light on the electrode surface.

Bio-templated formation of defect-abundant VS2 as a bifunctional material toward high-performance hydrogen evolution reactions and lithium−sulfur batteries

“…Tafel slopes between the bio-templated VS 2 in this work and reported various TMDs, showing comparable and even superior performance to other documented catalysts [18,28,30,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39] . Electrochemical impedance spectroscopic (EIS) tests were carried out to unravel the charge transfer resistance at the electrode/electrolyte interface, which is a crucial parameter that reflects the HER kinetics.…”

Emerging Layered Metallic Vanadium Disulfide for Rechargeable Metal‐Ion Batteries: Progress and Opportunities

“…In 2011, an ammonia-assisted strategy based on hydrothermal synthesis was successfully employed in the preparation of ultrathin VS 2 NSs (Figure 2), [43] which led the way to the actual hydrothermals ynthesis of nanostructured VS 2 . [60,84] In later studies, flowerlike, leaflike, and layer-by-layer-like VS 2 NSs with differentt hicknesses, as well as VS 2 quantum dots (Figure 3), were directly synthesized through ah ydrothermal method with Na 3 VO 4 •12 H 2 O/Na 3 VO 4 [43,48,49,52,54,60,62,70,71,82,[84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91] or NH 4 VO 3 [37,40,42,58,59,73,76,86,[92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99] as the Vs ource and thioacetamide (TAA) or N-acetyl-l-cysteine as the Ss ource (reductant). Meanwhile,V S 2 /graphene, [42,100] Na 2 Ti 2 O 5 /VS 2 , [101] VS 2 /carbon paper, [51] TiO 2 -B@VS 2 , [102] rGO/VS 2 [44,…”

“…In 2011, an ammonia‐assisted strategy based on hydrothermal synthesis was successfully employed in the preparation of ultrathin VS 2 NSs (Figure ), which led the way to the actual hydrothermal synthesis of nanostructured VS 2 . In later studies, flowerlike, leaflike, and layer‐by‐layer‐like VS 2 NSs with different thicknesses, as well as VS 2 quantum dots (Figure ), were directly synthesized through a hydrothermal method with Na 3 VO 4 ⋅ 12 H 2 O/Na 3 VO 4 or NH 4 VO 3 as the V source and thioacetamide (TAA) or N ‐acetyl‐ l ‐cysteine as the S source (reductant). Meanwhile, VS 2 /graphene, Na 2 Ti 2 O 5 /VS 2 , VS 2 /carbon paper, TiO 2 ‐B@VS 2 , rGO/VS 2 (Figure ), VOOH/VS 2 , VS 2 /MWCNTs, GNS/VS 2 , VS 2 ‐decorated graphitic carbon nitride (g‐C 3 N 4 ), VS 2 /CNT, Ni 3 S 2 /VS 2 , VS 2 /SS (Figure ), and NiCo 2 S 4 @VS 2 nanocomposites were also prepared through pure, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)‐assisted, or NaOH‐assisted hydrothermal reaction.…”

Recent Developments on Emerging Properties, Growth Approaches, and Advanced Applications of Metallic 2D Layered Vanadium Dichalcogenides

“…Hybrid material of VS 2 nanoflowers with MoS 2 nanosheets is reported to show enhanced HER activities with low onset potential of 97 meV and Tafel slope of 54.9 mV dec −1 . [ 136,137 ] Similarly, HER activities of 2D VSe 2 nanosheets are reported, which is summarized in Table 6. [ 63,69,138–140 ] A comparative experimental and DFT studies of VX 2 revealed that VTe 2 emerge as the best performing material for HER with overpotential at 0.5 V versus RHE and Tafel slope of 55 mV dec −1 with an order as VS 2 < VSe 2 < VTe 2 .…”