Mesoporous Iron-doped MoS2/CoMo2S4 Heterostructures through Organic-Metal Cooperative Interactions on Spherical Micelles for Electrochemical Water Splitting

Abstract

Mesoporous metal sulfide hybrid (meso-MoS2/CoMo2S4) materials via a soft-templating approach using diblock copolymer polystyrene-block-poly(acrylic acid) micelles are reported. The formation of the meso-MoS2/CoMo2S4 heterostructures is based on the sophisticated coassembly of dithiooxamide and metal precursors (i.e., Co2+, PMo12), which are subsequently annealed in nitrogen atmosphere to generate the mesoporous material. Decomposing the polymer leaves behind mesopores throughout the spherical MoS2/CoMo2S4 hybrid particles, generating numerous electrochemical active sites in a network of pores that enable faster charge transfer and mass/gas diffusion that enhance the electrocatalytic performance of MoS2/CoMo2S4. Doping the spherical meso-MoS2/CoMo2S4 heterostructures with iron improves the electronic properties of the hybrid meso-Fe-MoS2/CoMo2S4 material and consequently results in its superior electrochemical activities for both hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction.