Solvent-Assisted Oxygen Incorporation of Vertically Aligned MoS₂ Ultrathin Nanosheets Decorated on Reduced Graphene Oxide for Improved Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Three-dimensional oxygen-incorporated MoS2 ultrathin nanosheets decorated on reduced graphene oxide (O-MoS2/rGO) had been successfully fabricated through a facile solvent-assisted hydrothermal method. The origin of the incorporated oxygen and its incorporation mechanism into MoS2 were carefully investigated. We found that the solvent N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was the key as the reducing agent and the oxygen donor, expanding interlayer spaces and improving intrinsic conductivity of MoS2 sheets (modulating its electronic structure and vertical edge sites). These O dopants, vertically aligned edges and decoration with rGO gave effectively improved double-layer capacitance and catalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of MoS2. The prepared O-MoS2/rGO catalysts showed an exceptional small Tafel slope of 40 mV/decade, a high current density of 20 mA/cm(2) at the overpotential of 200 mV and remarkable stability even after 2000th continuous HER test in the acid media.