One-step synthesis of oxygen incorporated V-MoS_2 supported on partially sulfurized nickel foam as a highly active catalyst for hydrogen evolution

摘要

Highly active noble-metal-free catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are essential for the sustainable production of hydrogen. MoS2 based HER catalysts are potentially competitive to noble metals but facing the challenges of low conductivity, density of active sites and intrinsic activity in basal planes. Herein, oxygen incorporated V-MoS2 supported on partially sulfurized nickel foam (V-Mo(x)S/NF) are synthesized as binder-free HER catalysts via a one-step in-situ hydrothermal method. By controlling the fed atomic ratios of V/Mo, the optimal V-Mo(0.05)S/NF shows the low HER overpotential of similar to 31 and similar to 115 at 10 mA cm(-2) and 100 mA cm(-2), respectively in alkaline electrolyte, which is among the most active noble-metal and noble-metal-free HER catalysts reported. In V-Mo(0.05)S/NF, the introduced V and partially sulfurized nickel foam increases the conductivity. The hedgehog-like morphology ensures the exposure of high-density active sites. More importantly, the incorporated surface oxygen can be readily tuned by the fed atomic ratios of V/Mo, which plays the primary role in promoting the intrinsic HER activity for V-Mo(x)S/NF. This work demonstrates the feasibility of boosting HER through the precise control of incorporated surface oxygen in MoS2 based catalysts. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.