Sub-5 nm edge-rich 1T'-ReSe₂ as bifunctional materials for hydrogen evolution and sodium-ion storage

Journal Article · Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Nano Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.01.093· OSTI ID:1495018

Zhuang, Minghao ^[1]; Xu, Gui -Liang ^[2]; Gan, Li -Yong ^[3]; Dou, Yubing ^[4]; Sun, Cheng -Jun ^[2]; Ou, Xuewu ^[4]; Xie, Yingying ^[2]; Liu, Zhenjing ^[4]; Cai, Yuting ^[4]; Ding, Yao ^[4]; Abidi, Irfan Haider ^[4]; Tyagi, Abhishek ^[4]; Amine, Khalil  ^[5]; Luo, Zhengtang ^[4]

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1. Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Hong Kong (China); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States)
3. South China Univ. of Technology, Guangzhou (China)
4. Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Hong Kong (China)
5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)

The rhenium-based transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), as new members in the TMDs family, have raised great interests recently. Due to the anisotropic structure and unique photoelectric properties, they have potential applications for electrochemical energy conversion and storage. In this work, we performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations on pristine 1T'-ReSe₂ toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The results indicated that the Gibbs free energy of the 1T'-ReSe₂ edge site for HER could be as small as 0.01 eV, superior to other reported TMDs. Experimentally, we developed a strategy to fabricate sub-5 nm sized 1T'-ReSe₂ nanoflakes on carbon nanotubes. Such a small size for the nanoflakes brought abundant edge exposure, which boosted the catalytic activity in the HER. Specifically, the 1T'-ReSe₂ nanoflakes needed only 23 and 60 mV overpotentials to achieve –1 and –10 mA cm^–2 current densities, along with a low Tafel slope of 37 mV dec^–1 and a high exchange current density of 0.3 mA cm^–2. The edge-rich and layered 1T'-ReSe₂ was also explored as an anode for sodium ion battery. The in operando X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) technique was applied to investigate the TMD behavior in real-time during the sodiation/desodiation process. Furthermore, the in situ results revealed that the nanosized 1T'-ReSe₂ is electrchemically reversible during discharge/charge cycles. The electrochemical test results demonstrated that 1T'-ReSe₂ could be a promising anode material for alkaline batteries.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V). Battery Materials Research (BMR) Program; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357; AC0-06CH11357
• OSTI ID: 1495018
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1637182
• Journal Information: Nano Energy, Vol. 58, Issue C; ISSN 2211-2855
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
Rhenium diselenide
anode
edge site
hydrogen evolution reaction
sodium battery
x-ray absorption near edge structure