Issue 5, 2015

Triggering the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of the inert two-dimensional MoS2 surface via single-atom metal doping

Abstract

Electrocatalytic splitting of water is one of the most efficient technologies for hydrogen production, and two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 has been considered as a potential alternative to Pt-based catalysts in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the catalytic activity of 2D MoS2 is always contributed from its edge sites, leaving a large number of in-plane domains useless. Herein, we for the first time demonstrated that the catalytic activity of in-plane S atoms of MoS2 can be triggered via single-atom metal doping in HER. In experiments, single Pt atom-doped, few-layer MoS2 nanosheets (Pt–MoS2) showed a significantly enhanced HER activity compared with pure MoS2, originating from the tuned adsorption behavior of H atoms on the in-plane S sites neighboring the doped Pt atoms, according to the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, the HER activity of MoS2 doped with a number of transition metals was screened by virtue of DFT calculations, resulting in a volcano curve along the adsorption free energy of H atoms Image ID:c5ee00751h-t1.gif, which was further confirmed in experiment by using non-precious metals such as Co and Ni atoms doping 2D MoS2 as the catalysts.

Graphical abstract: Triggering the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of the inert two-dimensional MoS2 surface via single-atom metal doping

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Mar 2015
Accepted
01 Apr 2015
First published
01 Apr 2015

Energy Environ. Sci., 2015,8, 1594-1601

Author version available

Triggering the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity of the inert two-dimensional MoS2 surface via single-atom metal doping

J. Deng, H. Li, J. Xiao, Y. Tu, D. Deng, H. Yang, H. Tian, J. Li, P. Ren and X. Bao, Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, 8, 1594 DOI: 10.1039/C5EE00751H

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