Activation of Ternary Transition Metal Chalcogenide Basal Planes through Chemical Strain for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Catalytically inactive basal planes pose challenges for the efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in two-dimensional (2 D) transition metal chalcogenide (TMC) nanosheets. Herein, a new hybrid structure is reported in which zero-dimensional TMC nanodots (NDs) are decorated on the basal planes of 2 D nanosheets of TMCs to enhance their catalytic activity towards the HER process. A novel process is developed to fabricate a hybrid Cu₂ MoS₄ (2 D ternary transition metal chalcogenide Cu₂ MoS₄ nanosheets)/MoSe₂ (0 D binary transition metal chalcogenide MoSe₂ ND) nanostructure by controlling the size of the MoSe₂ NDs to enhance the HER activity. In acidic media, this optimal hybrid Cu₂ MoS₄ /MoSe₂ nanostructure achieves excellent catalytic activity for HER, which exhibits a low overpotential of 166 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 , which corresponds to a Tafel slope of 74.7 mV dec^-1 . In addition, the synthesized hybrid nanostructure shows excellent stability when under acidic medium for 16 h of continuous electrolysis. Therefore, it is suggested that our strategy may open a new path for the design of hybrid nanostructures by using ternary transition metal chalcogenides (TTMCs) with binary transition metal chalcogenides (BTMCs) for alternative non-noble metal catalysts towards HER.