Facile microwave assisted synthesis of vastly edge exposed 1T/2H-MoS2 with enhanced activity for hydrogen evolution catalysis

Abstract

Energy technologies of the near future will heavily rely on electrochemical systems; hence, the importance of research on electrocatalytically active materials can never be emphasized enough. For hydrogen evolution, precious metal catalysts (e.g. platinum) are the acclaimed performers, but recently, two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been receiving immense interest due to their noteworthy catalytic activity and earth-abundance. In particular, molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) in its metallic 1T-phase is known to exhibit outstanding performance; thus, utilizing 1T-MoS₂ is of high interest. Here, MoS₂ is synthesized via a microwave-assisted solvothermal method (MoS₂-MW). Remarkably, the MoS₂-MW film revealed randomly oriented flake-like grains; thus, highly active edge-sites are vastly exposed to the surface. Moreover, investigations of the film exposed the highly stable structural hybrid of the 1T- and 2H-phases, which remarkably exhibits electrocatalytic attributes of pure 1T-MoS₂ with superb catalytic activity. The method allows synthesis of MoS₂-MW over morphologically complex conducting substrates to increase both the number and catalytic activity of active sites for hydrogen evolution.