Molybdenum Diselenide Nanolayers Prepared on Carbon Black as an Efficient and Stable Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

As a green and renewable energy source, hydrogen will play a more important role in lessening our reliance on fossil fuels. Electrochemical and photoelectrochemical reduction of water are two critical strategies for sustainable hydrogen production. Exploring low-cost, efficient, and stable catalysts to replace the expensive noble metal-based catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is practically significant in large-scale hydrogen production. In this work, we report the facile synthesis of a novel MoSe2/carbon black (MoSe2/CB) composite with few-layered MoSe2 grown on commercially available carbon black. The obtained MoSe2/CB composite displays a high catalytic activity toward HER in acidic media. The uppermost activity is obtained on the MoSe2/CB composite with a CB percentage of 50% (denoted as MoSe2/CB-50%). The MoSe2/CB-50% catalyst exhibits a current density of 31.5 mA cm–2 at −0.225 V vs RHE and a small Tafel slope of 62 mV dec–1, which is superior to most MoSe2-based catalysts reported previously. Moreover, the MoSe2/CB-50% catalyst also shows an excellent stability for HER during a long-term reaction. In view of the facile preparation, the high activity, good stability, and the low cost of CB, our MoSe2/CB catalyst enables a more prospective application for industrial and renewable hydrogen production as compared to other MoSe2-based catalysts.