Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has been widely examined as a catalyst containing no precious metals for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); however, these examinations have utilized synthesized MoS2 because the pristine MoS2 mineral is known to be a poor catalyst. The fundamental challenge with pristine MoS2 is the inert HER activity of the predominant (0001) basal surface plane. In order to achieve high HER performance with pristine MoS2, it is essential to activate the basal plane. Here, we report a general thermal process in which the basal plane is texturized to increase the density of HER-active edge sites. This texturization is achieved through a simple thermal annealing procedure in a hydrogen environment, removing sulfur from the MoS2 surface to form edge sites. As a result, the process generates high HER catalytic performance in pristine MoS2 across various morphologies such as the bulk mineral, films composed of micron-scale flakes, and even films of a commercially available spray of nanoflake MoS2. The lowest overpotential (η) observed for these samples was η = 170 mV to obtain 10 mA/cm(2) of HER current density.
Keywords: MoS2; edge site; hydrogen evolution reaction; hydrogen thermal processing; thermal texturization.