Stabilizing Active Edge Sites in Semicrystalline Molybdenum Sulfide by Anchorage on Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Finding an abundant and cost‐effective electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for a global production of hydrogen from water electrolysis. This work reports an exceptionally large surface area hybrid catalyst electrode comprising semicrystalline molybdenum sulfide (MoS 2+ x ) catalyst attached on a substrate based on nitrogen‐doped carbon nanotubes (N‐CNTs), which are directly grown on carbon fiber paper (CP). It is shown here that nitrogen‐doping of the carbon nanotubes improves the anchoring of MoS 2+ x catalyst compared to undoped carbon nanotubes and concurrently stabilizes a semicrystalline structure of MoS 2+ x with a high exposure of active sites for HER. The well‐connected constituents of the hybrid catalyst are shown to facilitate electron transport and as a result of the good attributes, the MoS 2+ x /N‐CNT/CP electrode exhibits an onset potential of −135 mV for HER in 0.5 m H 2 SO 4 , a Tafel slope of 36 mV dec −1 , and high stability at a current density of −10 mA cm −2 .