Three-Dimensional Heterostructures of MoS 2 Nanosheets on Conducting MoO 2 as an Efficient Electrocatalyst To Enhance Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS) is a promising catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) because of its unique nature to supply active sites in the reaction. However, the low density of active sites and their poor electrical conductivity have limited the performance of MoS in HER. In this work, we synthesized MoS nanosheets on three-dimensional (3D) conductive MoO via a two-step chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reaction. The 3D MoO structure can create structural disorders in MoS nanosheets (referred to as 3D MoS/MoO), which are responsible for providing the superior HER activity by exposing tremendous active sites of terminal disulfur of S2 (in MoS) as well as the backbone conductive oxide layer (of MoO) to facilitate an interfacial charge transport for the proton reduction. In addition, the MoS nanosheets could protect the inner MoO core from the acidic electrolyte in the HER. The high activity of the as-synthesized 3D MoS/MoO hybrid material in HER is attributed to the small onset overpotential of 142 mV, a largest cathodic current density of 85 mA cm, a low Tafel slope of 35.6 mV dec, and robust electrochemical durability.