Plasma-induced large-area N,Pt-doping and phase engineering of MoS nanosheets for alkaline hydrogen evolution

• Published in: Energy & environmental science 2022-03, Vol.15 (3), p.121-121
• Main Authors: Sun, Yan, Zang, Yipeng, Tian, Wenzhi, Yu, Xujiang, Qi, Jizhen, Chen, Liwei, Liu, Xi, Qiu, Huibin
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1754-5692; 1754-5706
• DOI: 10.1039/d1ee03825g

Phase engineering of transition metal dichalcogenides is of important significance for their electrocatalytic performance. Herein, we report a facile and scalable N 2 -plasma strategy to promote the phase transformation of MoS 2 nanosheets from 2H to 1T with a remarkable conversion of ca. 62%. The plasma also favors the dissociation of the additional deposited Pt salts and the diffusion of Pt atoms into the MoS 2 nanosheets, which further improves the yield of the 1T phase to ca. 87%. The resulting N,Pt-MoS 2 nanosheet complexes immobilized on carbon cloth (CC) reveal excellent alkaline HER activity with a low overpotential of 38 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and robust cycling stability. Refined structural characterization and theoretical calculations indicate that the deep doping of N and Pt elements regulates the electronic and coordination structures of MoS 2 , and subsequently activate the sulfur sites to form emptier 2p z orbitals that are favorable for water adsorption and dissociation. Notably, the plasma fabrication approach developed in this work can be readily applied to prepare large-area N,Pt-MoS 2 nanosheet-coated CC (32 cm × 16 cm) with a uniform 1T-phase and high hydrogen generation. N 2 -plasma bombardment allows the large-area fabrication of high 1T phase N,Pt-doped MoS 2 nanosheets with prominent alkaline HER activity.