Effect of the carbon support on MoS2 hybrid nanostructures prepared by an impinging jet reactor for hydrogen evolution reaction catalysis

Abstract

The use of an impinging jet reactor to synthesize hybrid nanostructures is a facile, scalable, and a continuous production method of materials with desired catalytic and capacitive properties. In this paper, we study the possibility of using different carbon nanomaterials (CNMs), such as graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a support for molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles prepared in the impinging jet reactor. The influence of the used supports’ different properties on the final products was investigated. The proposed synthesis method allowed obtaining both mostly amorphous or crystalline hybrid MoS2/CNMs nanostructures. Moreover, catalysts with different weight ratios of MoS2 and CNMs were synthesized. Carbon nanomaterials added during the reaction allowed obtaining smaller MoS2 particle sizes with exposed active sites, and an activated basal plane of MoS2, as well as increasing the samples electron conductivity leading to enhanced catalytic activity for HER. For samples based on GO and CNTs, the mostly amorphous structure showed superior catalytic activity. The best sample was MoS2/GO with an assumed mass ratio of 50/1, annealed at 550 °C giving an overpotential of − 0.217 V vs. RHE for HER and a double-layer capacitance equal to 37.3 mF/cm2.