Efficient hydrogen evolution in transition metal dichalcogenides via a simple one-step hydrazine reaction.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27282871.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms11857 and PMC identifier 4906413.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Hydrogen evolution reaction is catalysed efficiently with precious metals, such as platinum; however, transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as a promising class of materials for electrocatalysis, but these materials still have low activity and durability when compared with precious metals. Here we report a simple one-step scalable approach, where MoOx/MoS2 core-shell nanowires and molybdenum disulfide sheets are exposed to dilute aqueous hydrazine at room temperature, which results in marked improvement in electrocatalytic performance. The nanowires exhibit ∼100 mV improvement in overpotential following exposure to dilute hydrazine, while also showing a 10-fold increase in current density and a significant change in Tafel slope. In situ electrical, gate-dependent measurements and spectroscopic investigations reveal that hydrazine acts as an electron dopant in molybdenum disulfide, increasing its conductivity, while also reducing the MoOx core in the core-shell nanowires, which leads to improved electrocatalytic performance.