Boosting hydrogen evolution on MoS2 via co-confining selenium in surface and cobalt in inner layer

Boosting hydrogen evolution on MoS2 via co-confining selenium in surface and cobalt in inner layer

Abstract The lack of highly efficient, inexpensive catalysts severely hinders large-scale application of electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for producing hydrogen. MoS 2 as a low-cost candidate suffers from low catalytic performance. Herein, taking advantage of its tri-layer structure...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2020-07, Vol.11 (1), p.3315-3315, Article 3315
Main Authors: Zheng, Zhilong, Yu, Liang, Gao, Meng, Chen, Xiya, Zhou, Wu, Ma, Chao, Wu, Lihui, Zhu, Junfa, Meng, Xiangyu, Hu, Jingting, Tu, Yunchuan, Wu, Sisi, Mao, Jun, Tian, Zhongqun, Deng, Dehui
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Atomic structure
Catalysts
Cobalt
Confining
Current density
Durability
Electrochemistry
Evolution
First principles
Hydrogen
Hydrogen evolution reactions
Hydrogen production
Molybdenum disulfide
Selenium
Sulfur
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Summary:Abstract The lack of highly efficient, inexpensive catalysts severely hinders large-scale application of electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for producing hydrogen. MoS 2 as a low-cost candidate suffers from low catalytic performance. Herein, taking advantage of its tri-layer structure, we report a MoS 2 nanofoam catalyst co-confining selenium in surface and cobalt in inner layer, exhibiting an ultra-high large-current-density HER activity surpassing all previously reported heteroatom-doped MoS 2 . At a large current density of 1000 mA cm −2 , a much lower overpotential of 382 mV than that of 671 mV over commercial Pt/C catalyst is achieved and stably maintained for 360 hours without decay. First-principles calculations demonstrate that inner layer-confined cobalt atoms stimulate neighbouring sulfur atoms while surface-confined selenium atoms stabilize the structure, which cooperatively enable the massive generation of both in-plane and edge active sites with optimized hydrogen adsorption activity. This strategy provides a viable route for developing MoS 2 -based catalysts for industrial HER applications.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723