Issue 43, 2019, Issue in Progress

Mass-producible 2D-WS2 bulk modified screen printed electrodes towards the hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

A screen-printable ink that contained varying percentage mass incorporations of two dimensional tungsten disulphide (2D-WS2) was produced and utilized to fabricate bespoke printed electrodes (2D-WS2-SPEs). These WS2-SPEs were then rigorously tested towards the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) within an acidic media. The mass incorporation of 2D-WS2 into the 2D-WS2-SPEs was found to critically affect the observed HER catalysis with the larger mass incorporations resulting in more beneficial catalysis. The optimal (largest possible mass of 2D-WS2 incorporation) was the 2D-WS2-SPE40%, which displayed a HER onset potential, Tafel slope value and Turn over Frequency (ToF) of −214 mV (vs. RHE), 51.1 mV dec−1 and 2.20 Image ID:c9ra05342e-t1.gif, respectively. These values significantly exceeded the HER catalysis of a bare/unmodified SPE, which had a HER onset and Tafel slope value of −459 mV (vs. RHE) and 118 mV dec−1, respectively. Clearly, indicating a strong electrocatalytic response from the 2D-WS2-SPEs. An investigation of the signal stability of the 2D-WS2-SPEs was conducted by performing 1000 repeat cyclic voltammograms (CVs) using a 2D-WS2-SPE10% as a representative example. The 2D-WS2-SPE10% displayed remarkable stability with no variance in the HER onset potential of ca. −268 mV (vs. RHE) and a 44.4% increase in the achievable current over the duration of the 1000 CVs. The technique utilized to fabricate these 2D-WS2-SPEs can be implemented for a plethora of different materials in order to produce large numbers of uniform and highly reproducible electrodes with bespoke electrochemical signal outputs.

Graphical abstract: Mass-producible 2D-WS2 bulk modified screen printed electrodes towards the hydrogen evolution reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jul 2019
Accepted
01 Aug 2019
First published
12 Aug 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2019,9, 25003-25011

Mass-producible 2D-WS2 bulk modified screen printed electrodes towards the hydrogen evolution reaction

J. P. Hughes, F. D. Blanco, C. E. Banks and S. J. Rowley-Neale, RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 25003 DOI: 10.1039/C9RA05342E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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