Issue 12, 2020

Engineering MoS2 nanostructures from various MoO3 precursors towards hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

MoS2-based nanomaterials are considered promising effective electrocatalysts to replace precious metal catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction. However, understanding the effect of MoO2 in MoS2-based catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction is ambiguous. In this paper, MoS2 nanoflowers of 210–430 nm in diameter were hydrothermally synthesized by the reduction of α-MoO3 particles with KSCN in a hydrochloric acid medium. Similarly, MoO2–MoS2-B nanoflowers and MoO2–MoS2-R nanoflowers were fabricated using α-MoO3 nanobelts and h-MoO3 microrods as Mo sources, respectively. Systematic studies on synthetic parameters verified that the formation of MoS2 nanoflowers is favored with high acidity, low MoO3/KSCN ratio and high temperature. The resultant nanoflowers served as electrocatalysts to drive hydrogen evolution in acidic solution. The MoS2 nanoflowers showed a relatively higher activity with a potential of 256 mV at 10 mA cm−2 compared to MoO2–MoS2-B nanoflowers (283 mV) and MoO2–MoS2-R nanoflowers (305 mV). Furthermore, MoS2 nanoflower catalysts maintained high stability after 1000 cycles and long-term durability for 5 h. The high catalytic activity could be ascribed to the large exposure of the Mo–S species and small amounts of Mo–O species on the MoS2-based catalyst surface.

Graphical abstract: Engineering MoS2 nanostructures from various MoO3 precursors towards hydrogen evolution reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Dec 2019
Accepted
02 Feb 2020
First published
11 Feb 2020

CrystEngComm, 2020,22, 2258-2267

Engineering MoS2 nanostructures from various MoO3 precursors towards hydrogen evolution reaction

W. Wang, Q. Yao, J. Ma, Y. Xu, J. Jiang, X. Liu and Z. Li, CrystEngComm, 2020, 22, 2258 DOI: 10.1039/C9CE01904A

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