Chemically activating MoS<sub>2</sub> via spontaneous atomic palladium interfacial doping towards efficient hydrogen evolution.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 29844358.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-04501-4 and PMC identifier 5974284.
- 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
Lacking strategies to simultaneously address the intrinsic activity, site density, electrical transport, and stability problems of chalcogels is restricting their application in catalytic hydrogen production. Herein, we resolve these challenges concurrently through chemically activating the molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) surface basal plane by doping with a low content of atomic palladium using a spontaneous interfacial redox technique. Palladium substitution occurs at the molybdenum site, simultaneously introducing sulfur vacancy and converting the 2H into the stabilized 1T structure. Theoretical calculations demonstrate the sulfur atoms next to the palladium sites exhibit low hydrogen adsorption energy at -0.02 eV. The final MoS2 doped with only 1wt% of palladium demonstrates exchange current density of 805 μA cm-2 and 78 mV overpotential at 10 mA cm-2, accompanied by a good stability. The combined advantages of our surface activating technique open the possibility of manipulating the catalytic performance of MoS2 to rival platinum.