The catalytic and magnetic properties of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) are significantly enhanced by the presence of edge sites. One way to obtain a high density of edge sites in a two-dimensional (2D) film is by introducing porosity. However, the large-scale bottom-up synthesis of a porous 2D MoS2 film remains challenging and the correlation of growth conditions to the atomic structures of the edges is not well understood. Here, using molecular beam epitaxy, we prepare wafer-scale nanoporous MoS2 films under conditions of high Mo flux and study their catalytic and magnetic properties. Atomic-resolution electron microscopy imaging of the pores reveals two new types of reconstructed Mo-terminated edges, namely, a distorted 1T (DT) edge and the Mo-Klein edge. Nanoporous MoS2 films are magnetic up to 400 K, which is attributed to the presence of Mo-terminated edges with unpaired electrons, as confirmed by density functional theory calculation. The small hydrogen adsorption free energy at these Mo-terminated edges leads to excellent activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction.
Keywords: Molybdenum disulfide; edge magnetism; hydrogen evolution reactions; transition metal dichalcogenides.