Recent Advancement in MoS2 for Hydrogen Evolution Reactions

Abstract

The economic growth of any country depends on certain factors of which energy is a part and even prominent. The global economy has depended heavily on fossil fuels as the main source of reliable energy for so many decades. Their adverse long-term impact on society has led to a substantial increase in research activities both in industry and academia. Most of the research has been dominated by the development of green energy technologies and the expansion of such technologies in order to meet increasing future demands of energy. Prominent among the research drive is the development of fuel cells, whose driving force comes from hydrogen. This is because hydrogen is economical considering its relative abundance, low cost, yet high activity in production. Materials such as Pt, C, Fe, MoS2 have gained popularity in the production of hydrogen for use in fuel cell devices. The high efficiency of MoS2, amorphous or crystalline, in hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) depends on a suitable architecture that increases the exposure of its edge sites. Such architecture could be determined by the design of catalysts in terms of proportions of molybdenum and dopant ions, the composite structure between MoS2 and electrically conductive materials, synthesis temperature and the synthesis method. Therefore, a review is made on recent achievements for different nanoarchitectures of MoS2 as well as its composite structures for use as electro-catalysts in HER performance and future prospects.