Morphological Engineering of Winged Au@MoS2 Heterostructures for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Yuan Li, Marek B. Majewski, Saiful M. Islam, Shiqiang Hao, Akshay A. Murthy, Jennifer G. Distefano, Eve D. Hanson, Yaobin Xu, Chris Wolverton, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Michael R. Wasielewski, Xinqi Chen*, Vinayak P. Dravid

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

99 Scopus citations

Abstract

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been recognized as a promising cost-effective catalyst for water-splitting hydrogen production. However, the desired performance of MoS2 is often limited by insufficient edge-terminated active sites, poor electrical conductivity, and inefficient contact to the supporting substrate. To address these limitations, we developed a unique nanoarchitecture (namely, winged Au@MoS2 heterostructures enabled by our discovery of the "seeding effect" of Au nanoparticles for the chemical vapor deposition synthesis of vertically aligned few-layer MoS2 wings). The winged Au@MoS2 heterostructures provide an abundance of edge-terminated active sites and are found to exhibit dramatically improved electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Theoretical simulations conducted for this unique heterostructure reveal that the hydrogen evolution is dominated by the proton adsorption step, which can be significantly promoted by introducing sufficient edge active sites. Our study introduces a new morphological engineering strategy to make the pristine MoS2 layered structures highly competitive earth-abundant catalysts for efficient hydrogen production.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)7104-7110
Number of pages7
JournalNano letters
Volume18
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 14 2018

Funding

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant no. DMR-1507810. This work made use of the EPIC, Keck-II, and SPID facilities of Northwestern University’s NUANCE Center, which has received support from the Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205); the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-1720139) at the Materials Research Center; the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN); the Keck Foundation; and the State of Illinois through the IIN. Electrochemistry experiments were supported by the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research (ANSER) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under award no. DE-SC0001059 (M.B.M.). J.G.D. gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP). A.A.M. gratefully acknowledges support from the Ryan Fellowship and the IIN at Northwestern University.

Keywords

  • Winged Au@MoS
  • chemical vapor deposition
  • heterostructure
  • hydrogen evolution reaction
  • seeding effect

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Bioengineering
  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Morphological Engineering of Winged Au@MoS2 Heterostructures for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this