Immobilized Single Molecular Molybdenum Disulfide on Carbonized Polyacrylonitrile for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Tamene Simachew Zeleke; Meng-Che Tsai; Misganaw Adigo Weret; Chen-Jui Huang; Mulatu Kassie Birhanu; Tzu-Ching Liu; Chiu-Ping Huang; Yun-Liang Soo; Yaw-Wen Yang; Wei-Nien Su; Bing-Joe Hwang

doi:10.1021/acsnano.9b01266

Immobilized Single Molecular Molybdenum Disulfide on Carbonized Polyacrylonitrile for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

ACS Nano. 2019 Jun 25;13(6):6720-6729. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.9b01266. Epub 2019 May 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ NanoElectrochemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering , National Taiwan University of Science and Technology , Taipei 10607 , Taiwan.
² Department of Materials Science and Engineering , National Taiwan University of Science and Technology , Taipei 10607 , Taiwan.
³ Material and Chemical Research Laboratories , Industrial Technology Research Institute , Hsin-Chu 31040 , Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Physics , National Tsing Hua University , Hsin-Chu 300 , Taiwan.
⁵ National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center , Hsin-Chu 30076 , Taiwan.
⁶ NanoElectrochemistry Laboratory, Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology , National Taiwan University of Science and Technology , Taipei 10607 , Taiwan.
⁷ Applied Research Center for Thin-Film Metallic Glass , National Taiwan University of Science and Technology , Taipei 10607 , Taiwan.

PMID: 31082197
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b01266

Abstract

Designing a MoS₂ catalyst having a large number of active sites and high site activity enables the catalytic activity toward the hydrogen evolution reaction to be improved. Herein, we report the synthesis of a low-cost and catalytically active immobilized single molecular molybdenum disulfide on carbonized polyacrylonitrile (MoS₂-cPAN) electrocatalyst. From the extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectra analysis, we found that the as-prepared material has no metal-metal scattering and it resembles MoS₂ with a molecular state. Meanwhile, the size of the molecular MoS₂ has been estimated to be about 1.31 nm by high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy. A low coordination number and maximum utilization of the single molecular MoS₂ surface enable MoS₂-cPAN to demonstrate electrochemical performance significantly better than that of bulk MoS₂ by two orders of exchange current density ( j_o) and turnover frequency to the hydrogen evolution.

Keywords: electrochemical reaction; hydrogen evolution; molybdenum disulfide; renewable energy; single molecule.