Crystalline/Amorphous Heterophase with Self-Assembled Hollow Structure for Highly Efficient Electrochemical Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Heterophase nanomaterials composed of multiple phases have attracted increasing attention due to their enhanced performance in electrocatalytic field. Nevertheless, constructing two-dimensional (2D) crystalline/amorphous heterophase nanostructures with the same chemical composition remains a great challenge. Herein, we report the preparation of a 2D crystalline/amorphous heterophase of MoS2 nanosheets with the same elemental components via a facile solvothermal method. The obtained MoS2 heterophase nanosheets can self-assemble into hollow structures with high morphological yield, referred to as c/a-hollow MoS2. Furthermore, the as-prepared c/a-hollow MoS2 can serve as templates to grow uniform Pt nanoparticles with a low mass loading of 5%, forming c/a-hollow MoS2-Pt nanocomposites. Impressively, when used as electrocatalysts, c/a-hollow MoS2 and c/a-hollow MoS2-Pt nanocomposites exhibit excellent electrochemical performance toward hydrogen production with low onset potentials of −112 and −26 mV and Tafel slopes as small as 45 and 34 mV/dec, respectively, which are among the best reported hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalysts.