Vertically oriented MoS₂ nanosheets with vast exposed edges for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

¹ Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory Dongguan, Guangdong, 523808, China
² Shenzhen Engineering Lab for Supercapacitor Materials, Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, School of Material Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, University Town, Shenzhen, 518055, China
³ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

^* Corresponding author: jyu@hit.edu.cn

Abstract

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂), a typical two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides, is a promising candidate for electrochemical water splitting catalysis due to its ultrahigh special area and highly exposed active edge sites. The main challenges restricted the wider application for MoS₂-based nanomaterials are the complex preparation process and the high overpotential. Here, we design a novel and facile sealed vessel to synthesize vertical oriented MoS₂ nanosheets electrocatalyst with vast exposed edges. Benefiting from the unique vertically-oriented structural and compositional characteristics, the MoS₂ nanosheets with 10-20 layers exhibits superior hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance with a small overpotential of 135.2 mV at a current density of 10 mA∙cm^-2 and low Tafel slope of 82.5 mV∙dec^-1 as well as extraordinary catalytic stability over 5000 cycles. Importantly, the sealed vessel reactor system may open up a versatile and potential synthetic way to construct various morphologies and structure of metal dichalcogenides for high-performance energy storage and conversions devices.