Structural and Electronic Optimization of MoS2 Edges for Hydrogen Evolution

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society 2019-11, Vol.141 (46), p.18578-18584
• Main Authors: Wang, Hao, Xiao, Xu, Liu, Shuyuan, Chiang, Chao-Lung, Kuai, Xiaoxiao, Peng, Chun-Kuo, Lin, Yu-Chang, Meng, Xing, Zhao, Jianqing, Choi, Jinho, Lin, Yan-Gu, Lee, Jong-Min, Gao, Lijun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b09932

The activity and accessibility of MoS2 edge sites are critical to deliver high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) efficiency. Here, a porous carbon network confining ultrasmall N-doped MoS2 nanocrystals (N-MoS2/CN) is fabricated by a self-templating strategy, which realizes synergistically structural and electronic modulations of MoS2 edges. Experiments and density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the N dopants could activate MoS2 edges for HER, while the porous carbon network could deliver high accessibility of the active sites from N-MoS2 nanocrystals. Consequently, N-MoS2/CN possesses superior HER activity with an overpotential of 114 mV at 10 mA cm–2 and excellent stability over 10 h, delivering one of best MoS2-based HER electrocatalysts. Moreover, this study opens a new venue for optimizing materials with enhanced accessible catalytic sites for energy-related applications.