Interface modifications for RuO-decorated MoS nanosheets as excellent electrocatalysts for alkaline hydrogen evolution reactions

• Published in: New journal of chemistry Vol. 47; no. 6; pp. 2899 - 296
• Main Authors: Zuo, Changjiang, Bao, Jiehua, Zhao, Xiwang, Mao, Chunfeng, Wu, Bo, Wang, Yanyun, Zhang, Yiwei, Zhang, Zewu, Zhou, Yuming
• Format: Journal Article
• Published: 06.02.2023
• ISSN: 1144-0546; 1369-9261
• DOI: 10.1039/d2nj05485j

The development of earth-rich, low-cost, and high-efficiency electrocatalysts toward alkaline hydrogen evolution reactions (HERs) in the water spitting process is extremely desirable yet a huge challenge. In this work, we report the synthesis of novel RuO 2 /MoS 2 electrocatalysts with good conductivity and abundant active sites for efficient HER by uniformly dispersing RuO 2 nanoparticles on MoS 2 nanosheets. Benefitting from the intense electronic coupling effect endowed with interface modifications, the as-prepared RuO 2 /MoS 2 electrocatalysts exhibited superior performance for HER in 1 M KOH with a very low overpotential of 36 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and a small Tafel slope value of 34.8 mV dec −1 . Moreover, the introduction of RuO 2 nanoparticles improved the durability of the RuO 2 /MoS 2 electrocatalysts with negligible variation in a 20 h operation. More importantly, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations further revealed the mechanism of strong electronic interaction between RuO 2 nanoparticles and MoS 2 nanosheets, which contributes to accelerating the H 2 O dissociation kinetics and optimizing H adsorption Gibbs free energy. This work may provide a deeper understanding for designing efficient HER catalysts through interface modification strategies. The RuO 2 -decorated MoS 2 nanosheets obtained by interface modifications act as an excellent electrocatalyst for alkaline hydrogen evolution reactions.