Se-Incorporation Stabilizes and Activates Metastable MoS<sub>2</sub> for Efficient and Cost-Effective Water Gas Shift Reaction.

Zhu, Ting; Liu, Cheng; Tan, Xinyue; Huang, Bin; Bian, Guo-Qing; Shao, Qi; Bai, Shuxing; Qian, Yong et al. · ACS Nano · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Although the water gas shift (WGS) reaction has sparked intensive attention for the production of high-purity hydrogen, the design of cost-efficient catalysts with noble metal-like performance still remains a great challenge. Here, we successfully overcome this obstacle by using Se-incorporated MoS<sub>2</sub> with a 1T phase. Combining the optimized electronic structure, additional active sites from edge sites, and a sulfur vacancy based on the 1T phase, as well as the high surface ratio from the highly open structure, the optimal MoS<sub>1.75</sub>Se<sub>0.25</sub> exhibits superior activity and stability compared to the conventional 2H-phase MoS<sub>2</sub>, with poor activity, large sulfur loss, and rapid inactivation. The hydrogen production of MoS<sub>1.75</sub>Se<sub>0.25</sub> is 942 μmol, which is 1.9 times higher than MoS<sub>2</sub> (504 μmol) and 2.8 times higher than MoSe<sub>2</sub> (337 μmol). Furthermore, due to the lattice stabilization <i>via</i> Se-incorporation, MoS<sub>1.75</sub>Se<sub>0.25</sub> exhibited excellent long-term stability without obvious change in more than 10 reaction rounds. Our results demonstrate a pathway to design efficient and cost-efficient catalysts for WGS.