Boundary activated hydrogen evolution reaction on monolayer MoS2

Jianqi Zhu,Lixin Zhang,Wei Chen,Hua Yu,Luojun Du,Ying Jiang,Qinqin Wang,Dongxia Shi,Zheng Wei,Rong Yang,Mengzhou Liao,Guangyu Zhang,Zhi-Chang Wang,Wenlong Wang,Jing Zhang,Na Li,Huijia Dai

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09269-9

Abstract

Recently, monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) has emerged as a promising and non–precious electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. However, its performance is largely limited by the low density and poor reactivity of active sites within its basal plane. Here, we report that domain boundaries in the basal plane of monolayer MoS2 can greatly enhance its hydrogen evolution reaction performance by serving as active sites. Two types of effective domain boundaries, the 2H-2H domain boundaries and the 2H-1T phase boundaries, were investigated. Superior hydrogen evolution reaction catalytic activity, long-term stability and universality in both acidic and alkaline conditions were achieved based on a multi-hierarchy design of these two types of domain boundaries. We further demonstrate that such superior catalysts are feasible at a large scale by applying this multi-hierarchy design of domain boundaries to wafer-scale monolayer MoS2 films.

Highlights

Monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) has emerged as a promising and non–precious electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction
It is generally believed that the catalytic activity of MoS2 originates from its edges while its basal plane is rather inert, which limits the practical application of this material for HER8–11
2H–2H domain boundaries and 2H–1T-phase boundaries for Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). We investigated both single-crystalline and polycrystalline 2H-phase monolayer MoS2 samples grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for HER

Summary

Introduction

Monolayer molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) has emerged as a promising and non–precious electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. We report that domain boundaries in the basal plane of monolayer MoS2 can greatly enhance its hydrogen evolution reaction performance by serving as active sites. Superior hydrogen evolution reaction catalytic activity, long-term stability and universality in both acidic and alkaline conditions were achieved based on a multihierarchy design of these two types of domain boundaries. In order to overcome the limited catalytic activity of the MoS2 basal plane, various techniques have been developed, such as phase engineering[12,13,14,15], interface electronic coupling[16], introducing active unsaturated defects[14] and strain[17] These techniques could improve the restricted factors (poor conductivity and limited active sites) for the potential of MoS2 in HER18–20. We demonstrate that such catalysts are scalable, e.g., over 4-inch wafer scale, pushing a crucial technological step toward practical applications

Methods

Results

Conclusion