Efficient hydrogen evolution in transition metal dichalcogenides via a simple one-step hydrazine reaction

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 11857
• Main Authors: Cummins, Dustin R., Martinez, Ulises, Sherehiy, Andriy, Kappera, Rajesh, Martinez-Garcia, Alejandro, Schulze, Roland K., Jasinski, Jacek, Zhang, Jing, Gupta, Ram K., Lou, Jun, Chhowalla, Manish, Sumanasekera, Gamini, Mohite, Aditya D., Sunkara, Mahendra K., Gupta, Gautam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 10.06.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/133; 140/146; 639/301/357/1016; 639/638/263/406/77/886; 639/638/403/934; Chemical vapor deposition; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; electrocatalysis; Electrons; energy sciences; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; inorganic and physical chemistry; material science; Materials science; Molybdenum; multidisciplinary; Nanowires; Precious metals; reaction mechanisms; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); New Mexico; United States > US
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11857

Hydrogen evolution reaction is catalysed efficiently with precious metals, such as platinum; however, transition metal dichalcogenides have recently emerged as a promising class of materials for electrocatalysis, but these materials still have low activity and durability when compared with precious metals. Here we report a simple one-step scalable approach, where MoO x /MoS 2 core-shell nanowires and molybdenum disulfide sheets are exposed to dilute aqueous hydrazine at room temperature, which results in marked improvement in electrocatalytic performance. The nanowires exhibit ∼100 mV improvement in overpotential following exposure to dilute hydrazine, while also showing a 10-fold increase in current density and a significant change in Tafel slope. In situ electrical, gate-dependent measurements and spectroscopic investigations reveal that hydrazine acts as an electron dopant in molybdenum disulfide, increasing its conductivity, while also reducing the MoO x core in the core-shell nanowires, which leads to improved electrocatalytic performance. Transition metal dichalcogenides are promising hydrogen evolution catalysts however they can require expensive processing steps to enhance their activity. Here, the authors report a one-step activation step in which room temperature hydrazine treatment results in much enhanced electrocatalytic performance.