Amorphous phosphorus-doped MoS2 catalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Splitting water is an important method for producing clean and sustainable hydrogen to replace finite fossil fuels in future energy systems. MoS2 is reported as a promising catalyst without noble metallic elements to accelerate the rate of the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. However, there is a real need and strong demand for further improvement of the MoS2-based catalyst. In the present study, a novel amorphous phosphorus-doped MoS2 nanocomposite (P-MoS2) is prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. Compared with crystalline molybdenum disulfide, the amorphous P-doped MoS2 catalyst exhibits much better activity with a smaller Tafel slope of 39 mV dec−1. Moreover, good stability is also demonstrated over the P-MoS2 catalyst in acidic electrolyte. This highly active amorphous P-doped MoS2 catalyst is a promising candidate to facilitate the development of economical hydrogen production systems.