All-pH-Tolerant In-Plane Heterostructures for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Zhihua Cheng, Yukun Xiao, Wenpeng Wu, Xinqun Zhang, Qiang Fu, Yang Zhao*, Liangti Qu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

86 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Generally, electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by water splitting is a pH-dependent reaction, which limits the widespread harvesting of hydrogen energy. Herein, we present a simple way for chemical bonding of MoS2 (002) planes and α-MoC {111} planes to form in-plane heterostructures capable of efficient pH-universal HER. Due to the lattice strain from mismatched lattice parameters between α-MoC and MoS2, this catalyst changes the electronic configuration of the MoS2 and thus acquires the favorable proton adsorption and desorption activity, suggested by the platinum (Pt)-like free Gibbs energy. Consequently, only a low 78 mV overpotential is needed to achieve the current density of 10 mA cm-2 in acidic solution along with a favorable Tafel kinetic process with a Tafel slope of 38.7 mV dec-1. Owing to the synergistic interaction between MoS2 (002) planes and α-MoC {111} planes with strong water dissociation activities, this catalyst also exhibits high HER performances beyond that of Pt in neutral and alkaline. This work proves the advances of in-plane heterostructures and illustrates the production of low-cost but highly efficient pH-universal HER catalytic materials, promising for future sustainable hydrogen energy.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11417-11427
Number of pages11
JournalACS Nano
Volume15
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Jul 2021

Keywords

  • MoS/α-MoC
  • hydrogen evolution
  • in-plane heterostructure
  • pH-universal
  • strain engineering

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