Molybdenum Disulfide/Nitrogen‐Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite with Enlarged Interlayer Spacing for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Facile design of low‐cost and highly active catalysts from earth‐abundant elements is favorable for the industrial application of water splitting. Here, a simple strategy to synthesize an ultrathin molybdenum disulfide/nitrogen‐doped reduced graphene oxide (MoS 2 /N‐RGO‐180) nanocomposite with the enlarged interlayer spacing of 9.5 Å by a one‐step hydrothermal method is reported. The synergistic effects between the layered MoS 2 nanosheets and N‐doped RGO films contribute to the high activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). MoS 2 /N‐RGO‐180 exhibits the excellent catalytic activity with a low onset potential of −5 mV versus reversible hydrogen elelctrode (RHE), a small Tafel slope of 41.3 mV dec −1 , a high exchange current density of 7.4 × 10 −4 A cm −2 , and good stability over 5 000 cycles under acidic conditions. The HER performance of MoS 2 /N‐RGO‐180 nanocomposite is superior to the most reported MoS 2 ‐based catalysts, especially its onset potential and exchange current density. In this work, a novel and simple method to the preparation of low‐cost MoS 2 ‐based electrocatalysts with the extraordinary HER performance is presented.