Performance evaluation of molybdenum dichalcogenide (MoX2; X= S, Se, Te) nanostructures for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) using transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have gained interest owing to their low-cost, abundancy and predominant conductivity. However, forthright comparisons of transition metal chalcogenides for HER are scarcely conducted. In this work, we report the synthesis of series of molybdenum chalcogenide nanostructures MoX2 (X = S, Se, Te) via a facile hydrothermal method. Used as an electrocatalyst for HER, MoS2 nanograins, MoSe2 nanoflowers and MoTe2 nanotubes could afford the benchmark current densities of 10 mA cm−2 at the overpotentials of −173 mV, −208 mV and −283 mV with the measured Tafel slope values of 109.81 mV dec−1, 65.92 mV dec−1 and 102.06 mV dec−1, respectively. Besides other factors influencing HER, the role of electronic conductivity in HER of these molybdenum dichalcogenides are elucidated. In addition, the presented molybdenum dichalcogenides in this work are also complimented with robustness as determined from high-current density stability measurements.