Substrate Impact on the Structure and Electrocatalyst Properties of Molybdenum Disulfide for HER from Water

Abstract

It is expected that utilization of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)-based nanostructured electrocatalysts might replace the Pt-group electrodes most effectively applied for hydrogen evolution reaction from water. Therefore, in the past two decades, various approaches have been reported for fabrication of nanostructured MoS2-based catalysts, but their applications in practice are still missing due to lower activity and stability. We envisaged that the knowledge about the peculiarities of MoS2 nanoplatelets attachment to various conductive substrates by hydrothermal processing could be helpful for fabrication of more active and stable working electrodes. Therefore, in this study, the hydrothermal syntheses at the Mo, Ti, Al, anodized Ti, and hydrothermally designed titanium suboxide substrates were performed; the electrodes obtained were characterized; and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity was tested. In this way, MoS2-based HER catalyst possessing a surprising stability and a low Tafel slope was designed via attachment of nanoplatelet-shaped MoS2 species to the nanotube-shaped anatase-TiO2 surface.

Cysteine-Induced Hybridization of 2D Molybdenum Disulfide Films for Efficient and Stable Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

“…After anodizing, the specimens were thoroughly rinsed, air-dried, and calcined at 450 °C for 2 h using a 10 °C min −1 ramp. An anatase TiO 2 nanotubed sublayer between Ti and MoS 2 was chosen as the substrate for the nanostructured HER catalyst because of its fairy good chemical and thermal stability, huge surface area, low resistance in the hydrogen environment, and because of the adsorption affinity of the MoS 2 species to titanium oxide [ 51 , 52 ].…”

MoS2 as a Co-Catalyst for Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production: A Mini Review

“…Hydrothermal and solvothermal methods are the most interesting for the preparation of MoS 2 nanosheets [ 67 , 68 ]. In these methods, the Mo source is commonly a molybdate, such as Na 2 MoO 4 or (NH 4 ) 6 Mo 7 O 24 , and the S source is thiourea and thioacetamide and L-cysteine [ 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ]. The molybdate reacts with the S or S compound in a stainless steel autoclave.…”

Design and Characterization of Nanostructured Titanium Monoxide Films Decorated with Polyaniline Species

“…There is a variety of applications for titania [19], but for titanium suboxides, despite their advantageous properties such as high electrical conductivity and low bandgap [20], application areas are still not clear. Up to now, several publications have reported on titanium-suboxides-based gas sensors [21,22], microbial fuel cells [18], substrates for electrocatalysts [23], solar cells [24], optoelectronic devices [25], batteries [26], etc. While many common synthesis methods exist for TiO 2 , such as anodization [27], microwave synthesis [28], laser beam treating [29] and chemical oxidation [30], these methods are not suitable for the formation of nonstoichiometric titanium oxide structures.…”