In this work we report the improvement in the catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on 1T-MoS2 by intercalating cations in the interlayer region of the 1T-MoS2 sheets. By the judicious use of cations (Na+, Ca2+, Ni2+ and Co2+) the interlayer distance and the charge on these MoS2 nanosheets were varied. It was experimentally observed that there was an increase in the activity (decreasing overpotential) for the HER for all the cations that were individually intercalated. Moreover, the intercalation of Na+ showed the smallest interlayer distance between the sheets of MoS2 (and smallest surface charge) and also the lowest overpotential (~180 mV @10 mA/cm-2) for HER. Tafel slopes of the intercalated-1T-MoS2 samples were similar to 1T-MoS2, suggesting that the reaction mechanism was not changed due to intercalation. Density functional theory calculations showed that there was a lower free energy for H adsorption on the intercalated 1T-MoS2 than on pristine 1T-MoS2 surfaces, consistent with the trend in HER activity for the different samples.

Effect of the interlayer spacing and charge of 1T-MoS2 on the electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.