In-situ synthesis of hollow Co–MoS2 nanocomposites on the carbon nanowire arrays/carbon cloth as high-performance catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The design and synthesis of non-precious metal catalysts that effectively convert water into molecular hydrogen in an acidic environment is essential to reduce the energy loss in the water splitting process. Among them, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is considered as an effective alternative to Pt-based materials due to its excellent structure properties. Here, by using metal-organic framework (MOF) as the precursor, sodium molybdate as molybdenum sources and thiourea as sulfur sources, a hollow structure of Co–MoS2 electrocatalyst was prepared on highly conductive carbon nanowire arrays/carbon cloth (CA/CC) by hydrothermal reaction. The combination of carbon nanowire arrays and carbon cloth ensures the high conductivity, while the hollow Co–MoS2 structure promotes the penetration of electrolytes and the release of hydrogen bubbles. The overpotential is only 296 mV when the current density was ~1500 mA/cm2, which shows excellent catalytic hydrogen evolution activity of the material. In addition, the three-dimensional hollow structure avoids the use of adhesives between the active material and the self-supporting material, which can improve the stability of the material and provides a new idea to design commercial electrocatalysts.