Ternary VS2/ZnS/CdS hybrids as efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction: Experimental and theoretical insights

Widely used precious metal (i.e., Pt, or Pd) electrocatalysts need to be replaced with other cost-effective and earth-abundant materials for economical water splitting applications. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (MoS2, VS2, WS2, etc.) have emerged as ideal electroca...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAIP advances Vol. 11; no. 10; pp. 105010 - 105010-9
Main Authors Shinde, Pratik V., Gavali, Deepak S., Thapa, Ranjit, Singh, Manoj Kumar, Rout, Chandra Sekhar
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Melville American Institute of Physics 01.10.2021
AIP Publishing LLC
Subjects
Cadmium sulfide
Electrocatalysts
Free energy
Hydrogen
Hydrogen evolution reactions
Hydrogen production
Hydrogen-based energy
Palladium
Transition metal compounds
Water splitting
Zinc
Zinc sulfide
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Summary:Widely used precious metal (i.e., Pt, or Pd) electrocatalysts need to be replaced with other cost-effective and earth-abundant materials for economical water splitting applications. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (MoS2, VS2, WS2, etc.) have emerged as ideal electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to their tunable physicochemical properties and rich catalytic active sites. In this regard, we propose a strategy to achieve improved HER performance of VS2 by fabricating a hybrid material with transition metal (Zn and Cd)-based sulfides. A facile hydrothermal approach is employed to prepare a VS2/ZnS/CdS hybrid catalyst that exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic performance for the HER in acidic media with a small overpotential of 86 mV at 10 mA/cm2 and a Tafel slope of 74.4 mV/dec. This inferred the Volmer–Heyrovsky mechanism with electrochemical desorption of hydrogen as the rate-limiting step. High performance is attributed to the abundance of catalytically active sites and the synergistic interactions between the materials. Theoretical calculations reveal that the VS2/ZnS/CdS hybrid shows favorable HER activity owing to its low hydrogen adsorption free energy of about 0.35 eV. We believe that this work on designing 2D VS2/ZnS/CdS will offer a new pathway to discover an efficient H2 generation electrocatalyst.
ISSN:2158-3226
2158-3226
DOI:10.1063/5.0068407