Issue 2, 2024

2D bifunctional tungsten disulfide-embedded UiO-66 (WS2@UiO-66) as a highly active electrocatalyst for water splitting

Abstract

Effective water-splitting electrocatalysts provide great potential for the production of hydrogen as fuel in renewable and sustainable energy devices. Electrocatalysts become the bottleneck in the process of achieving easy and cost-effective water-splitting and require tremendous attention on the catalyst design. An economical, greatly stable, and effective electrocatalyst with low activation potential is usually required. In this study, we present a solvothermal method for the synthesis of a highly effective electrocatalyst, denoted as WS2@UiO-66, to facilitate rapid and efficient water splitting. WS2@UiO-66 forms a heterostructure, allowing for efficient overall water splitting. Open structures with many active sites are accessible to the reactants in this bifunctional design, which promotes mass diffusion and electron transport. In an alkaline solution, WS2/UiO-66 exhibits exceptional HER and OER activity, requiring an HER overpotential of 121 mV and OER overpotential of 220 mV to yield a current density of 10 mA cm−2. The best catalyst shows a smaller Tafel value of 272 mV dec−1 and 140 mV dec−1 for HER and OER, respectively. Furthermore, at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, WS2@UiO-66 can sustain HER/OER without a substantial loss for 24 hours. The outstanding bifunctional catalytic performance of WS2@UiO-66 can significantly accelerate its utilization in water splitting. This research may pave the way for the development of new methods for cost-effective energy conversion and storage catalysts.

Graphical abstract: 2D bifunctional tungsten disulfide-embedded UiO-66 (WS2@UiO-66) as a highly active electrocatalyst for water splitting

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Jul 2023
Accepted
17 Dez 2023
First published
18 Dez 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Energy Adv., 2024,3, 459-470

2D bifunctional tungsten disulfide-embedded UiO-66 (WS2@UiO-66) as a highly active electrocatalyst for water splitting

M. Shah, U. Abdullah, E. Pervaiz and M. Ali, Energy Adv., 2024, 3, 459 DOI: 10.1039/D3YA00348E

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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