Plasma-Induced Exfoliation Provides Onion-Like Graphene-Surrounded MoS₂ Nanosheets for a Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

With the goal of obtaining sustainable earth-abundant electrocatalyst materials displaying high performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), here we propose a facile one-pot plasmainduced electrochemical process for the fabrication of new core−shell structures of ultrathin MoS 2 nanosheets engulfed within onion-like graphene nanosheets (OGNs@MoS 2 ). The resultant OGNs@MoS 2 structures not only increased the number of active sites of the semiconducting MoS 2 nanosheets but also enhanced their conductivity. Our OGNs@MoS 2 composites exhibited high HER performance, characterized by a low overpotential of 118 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 , a Tafel slope of 73 mV dec −1 , and long-time stability of 10 5 s without degradation; this performance is much better than that of the sheet-like graphene-wrapped MoS 2 composite GNs@MoS 2 (182 mV, 82 mV dec −1 ) and is among the best ever reported for composites involving MoS 2 and graphene nanosheets prepared through a simple one-batch process and using a low temperature and a short time for the HER. This approach appears to be an effective and simple strategy for tuning the morphologies of composites of graphene and transition metal dichalcogenide materials for a broad range of energy applications.

In situ deposition of CdS on MoS2/rGO‐based nanocomposites for highly efficient photocatalytic H2 evolution reaction with visible light

“…Notably, the presence of rGO and MoS 2 contributed significantly to the absorption of visible light and effectively limited the recombination of electron–hole pairs, which extended lifetime of the photogenerated electrons and made more electrons participate in the evolution of H 2 . We concluded that MoS 2 /rGO appeared to be a key factor to enhance photocatalytic performance 60 . Thus, these kinds of structural CdS/MoS 2 /rGO nanocomposites could achieve high H 2 evolution rates and played an important role in improving the activity for HER.…”

Boosting Hydrogen Evolution on MoS2/CNT Modified by Poly(sodium‐p–styrene sulfonate) via Proton Concentration in Acid Solution

“…[28,29] Nguyen et al synthesized the MoS 2 nanosheets covered by onion-like graphene nanosheets (OGNs@MoS 2 ) through a facile one-pot plasma-induced method. [30] OGNs@MoS 2 not only exposed the active sites to a greater degree but also displayed the enhanced conductivity. Sun et al reported MoS 2 nanosheets with edge-oriented geometry grown on rGO, which could effectively expose more catalytical active MoS 2 edges.…”

“…A great number of efforts have been devoted to enhance its HER performance, including phase and structure control, [23–25] surface modification, [26,27] doping, and/or stoichiometric changes [28,29] . Nguyen et al synthesized the MoS 2 nanosheets covered by onion‐like graphene nanosheets (OGNs@MoS 2 ) through a facile one‐pot plasma‐induced method [30] . OGNs@MoS 2 not only exposed the active sites to a greater degree but also displayed the enhanced conductivity.…”

Food seasoning-derived gel polymer electrolyte and pulse-plasma exfoliated graphene nanosheet electrodes for symmetrical solid-state supercapacitors

“…15 Based on various types of synthesis to obtain thin layers of graphene, 16,17 cathodic plasma is one of the best ways to synthesize thin layer graphene nanosheets with high purity, and large volume in a short time. [17][18][19] Based on that, in this study an improved cathodic plasma method is introduced, which can be used to obtain graphene nanosheets with a higher purity.…”