Preparation of High-Percentage 1T-Phase Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanodots for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution.

Tan, Chaoliang; Luo, Zhimin; Chaturvedi, Apoorva; Cai, Yongqing; Du, Yonghua; Gong, Yue; Huang, Ying; Lai, Zhuangchai et al. · Adv Mater · 2018

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are proven to be efficient and robust earth-abundant electrocatalysts to potentially replace precious platinum-based catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the catalytic efficiency of reported TMD catalysts is still limited by their low-density active sites, low conductivity, and/or uncleaned surface. Herein, a general and facile method is reported for high-yield, large-scale production of water-dispersed, ultrasmall-sized, high-percentage 1T-phase, single-layer TMD nanodots with high-density active edge sites and clean surface, including MoS<sub>2</sub> , WS<sub>2</sub> , MoSe<sub>2</sub> , Mo<sub>0.5</sub> W<sub>0.5</sub> S<sub>2</sub> , and MoSSe, which exhibit much enhanced electrochemical HER performances as compared to their corresponding nanosheets. Impressively, the obtained MoSSe nanodots achieve a low overpotential of -140 mV at current density of 10 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> , a Tafel slope of 40 mV dec<sup>-1</sup> , and excellent long-term durability. The experimental and theoretical results suggest that the excellent catalytic activity of MoSSe nanodots is attributed to the high-density active edge sites, high-percentage metallic 1T phase, alloying effect and basal-plane Se-vacancy. This work provides a universal and effective way toward the synthesis of TMD nanostructures with abundant active sites for electrocatalysis, which can also be used for other applications such as batteries, sensors, and bioimaging.