Ni–WSe₂nanostructures as efficient catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic and alkaline media

Abstract

Doping WSe2 with various metals promotes the HER. Ni doping was found as the most efficient dopant, forming grafted layers on the structures. The mechanisms of the enhanced activity are unveiled and discussed.

Synergistically Interfaced Bifunctional Transition Metal Selenides for High‐Rate Hydrogen Production Via Urea Electrolysis

“…Water oxidation in the absence [1 M KOH] and presence [1 M KOH+0.33 M urea] of urea was conducted, and the polarization curves are given in Figures 3a and 4a, respectively. Similar to previously reported transition metal chalcogenides for water oxidation [10,13,35,36] . An initial electrochemical activation was observed under anodic treatment at 1.4 V vs. RHE, which is attributed to the Ni 2+/3+ transformation.…”

“…As the polarization curves (Figure S9) indicate, MS‐NS showed the best performance, followed by FS@FO‐NS and NS, with all the electrodes exhibiting superior performance in alkaline electrolyte to acidic electrolyte. This phenomenon was observed in previous works dealing with Ni‐based electrodes for HER [36] . The increased performance in 1 M KOH is explained by the ability of Ni to facilitate water dissociation, which overcomes the rate‐determining step for HER in alkaline electrolyzers [37] .…”

“…However, water dissociation (Volmer step) dominates the overall reaction rate in an alkaline medium in addition to H + adsorption and as such, a favorable H/OH adsorption with low water dissociation barrier is required. In this regard, Ni promotes the dissociation of water by the favorable interaction with hydroxyl, [36] , resulting in a boosted HER in alkaline electrolyte.…”

Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for the Application of Pollution Reduction: A Review

“…On the other hand, Seok et al [73] have reported the intrinsic activity for HER on MoTe 2 nanosheet via the first-principle calculation and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) study. Besides, numerous researchers also successfully developed promising WS 2 -based and WSe 2 -based electrocatalysts recently (e.g., Te-WS 2 nanosheet by Pan et al [74]; and Ni-WSe 2 nanosheet by Kadam et al [75]).…”

Structural Transformation of SnS2 to SnS by Mo Doping Produces Electro/Photocatalyst for Hydrogen Production

“…Two‐dimensional layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) play an important role in catalysis due to their wide range of optical and electronic properties. The layered structure provides high surface area and low charge recombination characteristics, both desirable for the design of new catalysts . Among the various metal sulfides, SnS 2 is a naturally occurring bronze‐colored n‐type narrow band gap semiconductor .…”