Synergistic Effect of MoS2 Nanosheets and VS2 for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction with Enhanced Humidity-Sensing Performance.

As a typical transition-metal dichalcogenides, MoS2 has been a hotspot of research in many fields. In this work, the MoS2 nanosheets were compounded on 1T-VS2 nanoflowers (VS2@MoS2) successfully by a two-step hydrothermal method for the first time, and their hydrogen evolution properties were studied mainly. The higher charge-transfer efficiency benefiting from the metallicity of VS2 and the greater activity due to more exposed active edge sites of MoS2 improve the hydrogen evolution reaction performance of the nanocomposite electrocatalyst. Adsorption and transport of an intermediate hydrogen atom by VS2 also enhances the hydrogen evolution efficiency. The catalyst shows a low onset potential of 97 mV, a Tafel slope as low as 54.9 mV dec-1, and good stability. Combining the electric conductivity of VS2 with the physicochemical stability of MoS2, VS2@MoS2 also exhibits excellent humidity properties.

[1]  X. Lou,et al.  Defect‐Rich MoS2 Ultrathin Nanosheets with Additional Active Edge Sites for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution , 2013, Advanced materials.

[2]  Zhoucheng Wang,et al.  Solution Growth of Vertical VS2 Nanoplate Arrays for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution , 2016 .

[3]  Charlie Tsai,et al.  Tuning the MoS₂ edge-site activity for hydrogen evolution via support interactions. , 2014, Nano letters.

[4]  Robert Vajtai,et al.  Defects Engineered Monolayer MoS2 for Improved Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. , 2016, Nano letters.

[5]  Jing Wang,et al.  Properties of a nanocrystalline barium titanate on silicon humidity sensor , 2003 .

[6]  Jinlong Yang,et al.  Metallic few-layered VS2 ultrathin nanosheets: high two-dimensional conductivity for in-plane supercapacitors. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[7]  X. Lou,et al.  Facile synthesis of hierarchical MoS₂ microspheres composed of few-layered nanosheets and their lithium storage properties. , 2012, Nanoscale.

[8]  G. Eda,et al.  Conducting MoS₂ nanosheets as catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction. , 2013, Nano letters.

[9]  Huijun Zhao,et al.  Active sites on hydrogen evolution photocatalyst , 2013 .

[10]  Jun Dai,et al.  Giant Moisture Responsiveness of VS2 Ultrathin Nanosheets for Novel Touchless Positioning Interface , 2012, Advanced materials.

[11]  Jun Jin,et al.  Synthesis of Cu-MoS2/rGO hybrid as non-noble metal electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction , 2015 .

[12]  Weitao Yang,et al.  Layer-dependent electrocatalysis of MoS2 for hydrogen evolution. , 2013, Nano letters.

[13]  M. Pumera,et al.  Electrocatalysis of layered Group 5 metallic transition metal dichalcogenides (MX2, M = V, Nb, and Ta; X = S, Se, and Te) , 2016 .

[14]  Martin Pumera,et al.  Lithium intercalation compound dramatically influences the electrochemical properties of exfoliated MoS2. , 2015, Small.

[15]  Q. Qu,et al.  Core-shell structure of hierarchical quasi-hollow MoS2 microspheres encapsulated porous carbon as stable anode for Li-ion batteries. , 2014, Small.

[16]  W. Goddard,et al.  Schottky-Barrier-Free Contacts with Two-Dimensional Semiconductors by Surface-Engineered MXenes. , 2016, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[17]  Guosong Hong,et al.  MoS2 nanoparticles grown on graphene: an advanced catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction. , 2011, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[18]  Wei Zheng,et al.  Humidity sensing properties of BaTiO3 nanofiber prepared via electrospinning , 2010 .

[19]  Huan Pang,et al.  MoS2‐Based Nanocomposites for Electrochemical Energy Storage , 2016, Advanced science.

[20]  Lei Liao,et al.  Floating gate memory-based monolayer MoS2 transistor with metal nanocrystals embedded in the gate dielectrics. , 2015, Small.

[21]  Yuanyuan Zhang,et al.  Hollow Structured Micro/Nano MoS₂ Spheres for High Electrocatalytic Activity Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. , 2016, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[22]  Su-Huai Wei,et al.  Van der Waals metal-semiconductor junction: Weak Fermi level pinning enables effective tuning of Schottky barrier , 2016, Science Advances.

[23]  Claus H. Christensen,et al.  Toward Efficient Hydrogen Production at Surfaces , 2006, Science.

[24]  Wen Hu,et al.  3D Fe3S4 flower-like microspheres: high-yield synthesis via a biomolecule-assisted solution approach, their electrical, magnetic and electrochemical hydrogen storage properties. , 2009, Dalton transactions.

[25]  Dongzhi Zhang,et al.  Facile Fabrication of MoS2-Modified SnO2 Hybrid Nanocomposite for Ultrasensitive Humidity Sensing. , 2016, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[26]  E. Kaxiras,et al.  Tuning the electronic and chemical properties of monolayer MoS2 adsorbed on transition metal substrates. , 2013, Nano letters.

[27]  Charlie Tsai,et al.  Theoretical insights into the hydrogen evolution activity of layered transition metal dichalcogenides , 2015 .

[28]  X. Duan,et al.  Plasma-engineered MoS2 thin-film as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. , 2015, Chemical communications.

[29]  Thomas F. Jaramillo,et al.  Identification of Active Edge Sites for Electrochemical H2 Evolution from MoS2 Nanocatalysts , 2007, Science.

[30]  Jieun Yang,et al.  Recent Strategies for Improving the Catalytic Activity of 2D TMD Nanosheets Toward the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction , 2016, Advanced materials.

[31]  P. Ajayan,et al.  Self-optimizing, highly surface-active layered metal dichalcogenide catalysts for hydrogen evolution , 2017, Nature Energy.

[32]  Jia Liu,et al.  Interface engineering: The Ni(OH)2/MoS2 heterostructure for highly efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution , 2017 .

[33]  Kai Zhou,et al.  Porous metallic MoO2-supported MoS2 nanosheets for enhanced electrocatalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction. , 2015, Nanoscale.

[34]  Yanfang Sun,et al.  Shell-core MoS2 nanosheets@Fe3O4 sphere heterostructure with exposed active edges for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen production , 2017 .

[35]  J. Coleman,et al.  Thickness Dependence and Percolation Scaling of Hydrogen Production Rate in MoS2 Nanosheet and Nanosheet-Carbon Nanotube Composite Catalytic Electrodes. , 2016, ACS nano.

[36]  B. Xiang,et al.  Large-area synthesis of monolayered MoS(2(1-x))Se(2x) with a tunable band gap and its enhanced electrochemical catalytic activity. , 2015, Nanoscale.

[37]  M. Tang,et al.  Ultrasensitive and Broadband MoS2 Photodetector Driven by Ferroelectrics , 2015, Advanced materials.

[38]  M. Pumera,et al.  2H → 1T phase transition and hydrogen evolution activity of MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2 strongly depends on the MX2 composition. , 2015, Chemical communications.

[39]  Yi Xie,et al.  Semimetallic molybdenum disulfide ultrathin nanosheets as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution. , 2014, Nanoscale.

[40]  Micheál D. Scanlon,et al.  MoS2 Formed on Mesoporous Graphene as a Highly Active Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution , 2013 .

[41]  Liyi Shi,et al.  Microwave-hydrothermal synthesis and humidity sensing behavior of ZrO2 nanorods , 2013 .