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  • Accepted Manuscript: Activating and optimizing MoS 2 basal planes for hydrogen evolution through the formation of strained sulphur vacancies

Title: Activating and optimizing MoS 2 basal planes for hydrogen evolution through the formation of strained sulphur vacancies

As a promising non-precious catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction, molybdenum disulphide (MoS 2) is known to contain active edge sites and an inert basal plane. Activating the MoS 2 basal plane could further enhance its HER activity but is not often a strategy for doing so. Herein, we report the first activation and optimization of the basal plane of monolayer 2H-MoS 2 for HER by introducing sulphur (S) vacancies and strain. Our theoretical and experimental results show that the S-vacancies are new catalytic sites in the basal plane, where gap states around the Fermi level allow hydrogen to bind directly to exposed Mo atoms. The hydrogen adsorption free energy (ΔG H) can be further manipulated by straining the surface with S-vacancies, which fine-tunes the catalytic activity. Furthermore, proper combinations of S-vacancy and strain yield the optimal ΔG H = 0 eV, which allows us to achieve the highest intrinsic HER activity among molybdenum-sulphide-based catalysts.
Authors:
 [1] ; ORCiD logo [2] ;  [1] ;  [1] ;  [3] ;  [3] ;  [1] ;  [1] ;  [3] ;  [4] ;  [2] ;  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  2. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
  4. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 15; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Research Org:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org:
USDOE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; chemical engineering; electrocatalysis; two-dimensional materials
OSTI Identifier:
1257223