1 research outputs found
Activating MoS<sub>2</sub> for pH-Universal Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis
MoS<sub>2</sub> presents a promising
catalyst for the hydrogen
evolution reaction (HER) in water splitting, but its worse catalytic
performance in neutral and alkaline media than in acidic environment
may be problematic for practical application. This is because the
other half reaction of water splitting, i.e., oxygen evolution reaction,
often needs to be implemented in alkaline environment. Here we demonstrate
a universal strategy that may be used to significantly improve the
HER catalysis of MoS<sub>2</sub> in all kinds of environments from
acidic to alkaline, proton intercalation. Protons may be enabled to
intercalate between monolayer MoS<sub>2</sub> and underlying substrates
or in the interlayer space of thicker MoS<sub>2</sub> by two processes:
electrochemically polarizing MoS<sub>2</sub> at negative potentials
(vs RHE) in acidic media or immersing MoS<sub>2</sub> into certain
acid solutions like TFSI. The improvement in catalytic performance
is due to the activity enhancement of the active sites in MoS<sub>2</sub> by the intercalated protons, which might be related with
the effect of the intercalated protons on electrical conductance and
the adsorption energy of hydrogen atoms. The enhancement in catalytic
activity by the intercalated proton is very stable even in neutral
and alkaline electrolytes