文摘
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used to grow thin films of 2D MoS<sub>2sub> with nanostructure for catalytic applications in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Tailoring of the CVD parameters results in an optimized MoS<sub>2sub> structure for the HER that consists of large MoS<sub>2sub> platelets with smaller layered MoS<sub>2sub> sheets growing off it in a perpendicular direction, which increases the total number of edge sites within a given geometric area. A surface area to geometric area ratio of up to ∼340 is achieved, benefiting from the edge-exposed high-porosity network structure. The optimized thickness of the MoS<sub>2sub> film is determined for maximum performance, revealing that increasing thickness leads to increased impedance of the MoS<sub>2sub> film and reduced current density. The current density of the optimum sample reaches as high as 60 mA/cm<sup>2sup><sub>geosub> (normalized by geometric area) at an overpotential of 0.64 V vs RHE (in 0.5 M H<sub>2sub>SO<sub>4sub>), with a corresponding Tafel slope of ∼90 mV/dec and exchange current density of 23 μA/cm<sup>2sup><sub>geosub>. The lowered Tafel slope and large exchange current density demonstrate that the high-porosity edge-exposed MoS<sub>2sub> network structure is promising as a HER catalyst.