Molybdenum Disulfide Nanosheets Decorated with Platinum Nanoparticle as a High Active Electrocatalyst in Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Mina Razavi; M Sookhakian; Boon Tong Goh; Hadariah Bahron; Eyas Mahmoud; Y Alias

doi:10.1186/s11671-021-03644-6

Molybdenum Disulfide Nanosheets Decorated with Platinum Nanoparticle as a High Active Electrocatalyst in Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Nanoscale Res Lett. 2022 Jan 10;17(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s11671-021-03644-6.

Authors

Mina Razavi^{1

2}, M Sookhakian^{3

4}, Boon Tong Goh⁵, Hadariah Bahron⁶, Eyas Mahmoud⁷, Y Alias^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University Malaya Centre for Ionic Liquids, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. minarazavi220@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. minarazavi220@gmail.com.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University Malaya Centre for Ionic Liquids, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. m.sokhakian@um.edu.my.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. m.sokhakian@um.edu.my.
⁵ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Low Dimensional Materials Research Centre, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁶ Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University Malaya Centre for Ionic Liquids, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. yatimah70@um.edu.my.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. yatimah70@um.edu.my.

Abstract

Electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) refers to the process of generating hydrogen by splitting water molecules with applied external voltage on the active catalysts. HER reaction in the acidic medium can be studied by different mechanisms such as Volmer reaction (adsorption), Heyrovsky reaction (electrochemical desorption) or Tafel reaction (recombination). In this paper, facile hydrothermal methods are utilized to synthesis a high-performance metal-inorganic composite electrocatalyst, consisting of platinum nanoparticles (Pt) and molybdenum disulfide nanosheets (MoS₂) with different platinum loading. The as-synthesized composite is further used as an electrocatalyst for HER. The as-synthesized Pt/Mo-90-modified glassy carbon electrode shows the best electrocatalytic performance than pure MoS₂ nanosheets. It exhibits Pt-like performance with the lowest Tafel slope of 41 mV dec^-1 and superior electrocatalytic stability in an acidic medium. According to this, the HER mechanism is related to the Volmer-Heyrovsky mechanism, where hydrogen adsorption and desorption occur in the two-step process. According to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis, the presence of Pt nanoparticles enhanced the HER performance of the MoS₂ nanosheets because of the increased number of charge carriers transport.

Keywords: Acidic medium; Electrocatalyst; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Molybdenum disulfide; Platinum nanoparticles.

Abstract

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