One-pot synthesis of few-layered molybdenum disulfide anchored on N, S-codoped carbon for enhanced hydrogen generation

Abstract Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are regarded as the inexpensive and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Designing electrocatalyst with few-layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is one of the most effective methods to enhance the activity and durability for HER due to its abundant exposed rim- sites, fast electron transfer and high chemical stability. Herein, a green and facile one-pot approach is developed to synthesize few-layered MoS2/nitrogen, sulfur co-doped porous carbon (MoS2/NSPC) electrocatalyst via pyrolyzing the in-situ formed molybdate-melamine complex (MoOx-MEL) within the self-assembled networks of melamine-trithiocyanuric acid (MT). The optimal MoS2/NSPC electrocatalyst exhibits excellent HER stability and activity with overpotential of 114 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in 0.5 M H2SO4. Furthermore, few-layered tungsten disulfide anchored on N, S-codoped porous carbon (WS2/NSPC) with high HER activity can also be successfully synthesized by this strategy. It paves a universal way to design active sites-enriched few-layered dichalcogenides with high performance in the applications from energy conversion to storages.