Ag-doped MoSe2 for enhanced hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Productive electrocatalysts are essential for achieving clean generation of hydrogen via water splitting, as hydrogen is a cleaner source of energy and it may help to alleviate the pressing problem caused by the combustion of traditional fossil fuels. This problem can be overcome by having an electrocatalyst that is stable over a longer period of time. But long-term hydrogen generation has remained a challenging task and hence a solution is required for this problem. Among various electrocatalysts used for this purpose, transition metal dichalcogenides have been used recently. This is due to their, edge terminating surfaces, presence of various kinds of defects, which serves as active sites for either gas adsorption or hydrogen evolution reaction activity. Herein, we report the improved HER properties of Ag-doped MoSe2 obtained via facile hydrothermal technique. The structural analysis suggests incorporation of Ag into lattice site. Furthermore, Ag-doped MoSe2 with Ag/Mo mole ratio of 4% has a smaller overpotential of 130 mV at a current density of 5 mA/cm2 and a lowest Tafel slope of 68 mV/dec. The electrocatalyst so obtained retained its behaviour even after continuous 3000 cycles, thus suggesting that Ag doped MoSe2 may serve as a better alternative as compared with other expensive choices.