Enhanced Electrocatalysis for Hydrogen Evolution Reactions from WS₂ Nanoribbons

Abstract

A facile route is developed to boost the electrocatalytic activity of WS2 by chemically unzipping WS2 nanotubes to form WS2 nanoribbons (NRs) with increased edge content. Analysis indicates that the hydrogen evolution reaction activity is strongly associated with the number of exposed active edge sites. The formation of WS2 NRs is an effective route for controlling the electrochemical properties of the 2D dichalcogenides, enabling their application in electrocatalysis.

Hydrogen evolution at nanoporous gold/tungsten sulfide composite film and its optimization

“…The much lower Tafel slope of NPG/WSx indicates the lower HER activation energy and better electrical conductivity between the active sites of WS x . The Tafel slope of 74 mV dec -1 for NPG/WS x is much lower than that of WS 2 particles on Toray carbon paper (135 mV dec -1 ) 41 , and comparable to that of WS 2 nanosheet obtained from ball-milling (72 mV dec -1 ) 42 , WS 2 nanoribbons by chemically unzipping WS 2 nanotubes (68 mV dec -1 ) 12 , WS 2 particles on carbon cloth (78 mV dec -1 ) 30 and graphene film-confined WS 2 nanoparticles (67 mV dec -1 ) 43 .…”

Component-Controllable WS2(1–x)Se2x Nanotubes for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…42 A small Tafel slope will be beneficial in practical applications, because it will result in a strongly enhanced HER rate at a moderate increase of overpotential. 43,44 Meanwhile, as an important parameter describing HER activity of a catalyst, the exchange current densities of WS 2 , WSe 2 , and WS 2(1Àx) Se 2x NTs are determined to be 0.012, 0.003, and 0.029 mA cm À2 by fitting the linear portion of the Tafel plot at low cathodic current to the Tafel equation.…”

Three-Dimensional Heterostructures of MoS2 Nanosheets on Conducting MoO2 as an Efficient Electrocatalyst To Enhance Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…Among the newly discovered catalysts, two-dimensional layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as promising electrocatalysts for HER. [8][9][10][11][12] In TMDs, molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) has shown to be an excellent HER catalyst. 8 The computational and experimental results confirmed that the active catalytic sites of layered MoS 2 crystals are located at the sulfur edge, while basal planes are catalytically inert.…”