Structural regulation of amorphous molybdenum sulfide by atomic palladium doping for hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Molybdenum sulfide materials have long been considered as attractive non-precious-metal electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, comparing with the crystalline counterpart, amorphous MoSx has been less investigated previously. We here propose to increase the catalytical activity of a-MoSx by raising the reactant concentration at the catalytic interface via a chemical doping approach. The reconstruction of coordination structure of a-MoSx via Pd doping induces the formation of abundant unsaturated S atoms. Moreover, the reactant friendly catalytic interface is constructed through introducing hydrophilic groups to a-MoSx. The doped a-MoSx catalyst exhibits significantly enhanced HER activity in both acid and alkaline media.