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

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11857
• Publication Date: 2016-06-10T11:44:24Z
• Authors: Dustin R. Cummins; Ulises Martinez; Andriy Sherehiy; Rajesh Kappera; Alejandro Martine...; Roland K. Schulze; Jacek Jasinski; Jing Zhang; Ram K. Gupta; Jun Lou; Manish Chhowalla; Gamini Sumanasekera; Aditya D. Mohite; Mahendra K. Sunkara; Gautam Gupta
• Keywords: Science; Q; 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology; 7. Clean energy; Article

AbstractHydrogen 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 MoOx/MoS2 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 MoOx core in the core-shell nanowires, which leads to improved electrocatalytic performance.