Hydrogen Evolution Properties on Individual MoS₂ Nanosheets

Authors

Yu GAO, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.;
Juan ZHOU, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.;
Yu-wen LIU, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.;
Sheng-li CHEN, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Power Sources, Department of Chemistry, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.;Follow

Corresponding Author

Sheng-li CHEN(slchen@whu.edu.cn)

Abstract

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) has been acknowledged to play important roles in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for hydrogen energy technology. Both computational and experimental results have suggested that the promising catalytic activity of MoS₂ for the HER could be attributed to the sulfur edges of two-dimensional nanosheets, while their basal planes were catalytically inert. In order to verify this conclusion, we prepared single MoS₂ sheet electrodes which were made of individual MoS₂ sheets attached on the self-assembly monolayers (SAM) of SH(CH₂)₁₅COOH at Au ultramicroelectrodes (Au/SAM/MoS₂). The single MoS₂ sheet electrodes were prepared by dipping the SAM-modified Au ultramicroelectrodes in dilute solutions of MoS₂ sheets whose sizes were similar to or slightly smaller than the Au/SAM electrodes. The electrocatalytic properties of the as-prepared single MoS₂sheet electrodes with different sizes for HER were investigated in 0.5 mol·L^-1 H₂SO₄. It is shown that the nanoscale MoS₂ sheets exhibited superior HER activity over the microsize MoS₂ sheets. This is because of the abundantly exposed active sites on the nanoscale MoS₂ and the individual nanosheet could reflect its intrinsic reactivity more exactly. It directly proved that the active sites of MoS₂ in HER were at the edges.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

MoS2, edges, nanoelectrodes, hydrogen evolution reaction.

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.13208/j.electrochem.160562

Publication Date

2016-12-28

Online Available Date

2016-09-02

Revised Date

2016-07-20

Received Date

2016-06-01

Recommended Citation

Yu GAO, Juan ZHOU, Yu-wen LIU, Sheng-li CHEN. Hydrogen Evolution Properties on Individual MoS₂ Nanosheets[J]. Journal of Electrochemistry, 2016 , 22(6): 590-595.
DOI: 10.13208/j.electrochem.160562
Available at: https://jelectrochem.xmu.edu.cn/journal/vol22/iss6/7

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