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Nano Research 2016, 9(7): 2079-2087 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1098-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 14 May 2016

Unsaturated-sulfur-rich MoS2 nanosheets decorated on free-standing SWNT film: Synthesis, characterization and electrocatalytic application

Show Author's Information Daobin Liu1,  Weiyu Xu1,  Qin Liu1,  Qun He1,  Yasir A. Haleem1,  Changda Wang1,  Ting Xiang1,  Chongwen Zou1,  Wangsheng Chu1,  Jun Zhong2,  Zhiqiang Niu2,  Li Song1,3( )
National Synchrotron Radiation LaboratoryCAS Hefei Science CenterUniversity of Science and Technology of ChinaHefei230029China
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & DevicesInstitute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials Laboratory (FUNSOM)Soochow UniversitySuzhou215123China
Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education)College of ChemistryCollaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and EngineeringNankai UniversityTianjin300071China
Keywords:
flexible, MoS2 , hydrogen evolution, unsaturated-sulfur-rich, X-ray absorption near-edge structure
Cite this article:
Liu D, Xu W, Liu Q, et al. Unsaturated-sulfur-rich MoS2 nanosheets decorated on free-standing SWNT film: Synthesis, characterization and electrocatalytic application. Nano Research, 2016, 9(7): 2079-2087. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1098-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Herein, we report a bottom-up solvothermal route to synthesize a flexible, highly efficient MoS2@SWNT electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). Characterization revealed that branch-like MoS2 nanosheets containing sulfurrich sites were in situ uniformly dispersed on free-standing single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) film, which could expose more unsaturated sulfur atoms, allowing excellent electrical contact with active sites. The flexible catalyst exhibited excellent HER performance with a low overpotential (~150 mV at 10 mA/cm2) and small Tafel slope (41 mV/dec). To further explain the improved performance, the local electronic structure was investigated by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis, proving the presence of unsaturated sulfur atoms and strong electronic coupling between MoS2 and SWNT. This study provides an in-situ synthetic route to create new multifunctional flexible hybridized catalysts and useful insights into the relationships among the catalyst microstructure, electronic structure, and properties.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Unsaturated-sulfur-rich MoS2 nanosheets decorated on free-standing SWNT film: Synthesis, characterization and electrocatalytic application

Show Author's information Daobin Liu1, Weiyu Xu1, Qin Liu1, Qun He1, Yasir A. Haleem1, Changda Wang1, Ting Xiang1, Chongwen Zou1, Wangsheng Chu1, Jun Zhong2, Zhiqiang Niu2, Li Song1,3( )
National Synchrotron Radiation LaboratoryCAS Hefei Science CenterUniversity of Science and Technology of ChinaHefei230029China
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & DevicesInstitute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials Laboratory (FUNSOM)Soochow UniversitySuzhou215123China
Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education)College of ChemistryCollaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and EngineeringNankai UniversityTianjin300071China

Abstract

Herein, we report a bottom-up solvothermal route to synthesize a flexible, highly efficient MoS2@SWNT electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). Characterization revealed that branch-like MoS2 nanosheets containing sulfurrich sites were in situ uniformly dispersed on free-standing single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) film, which could expose more unsaturated sulfur atoms, allowing excellent electrical contact with active sites. The flexible catalyst exhibited excellent HER performance with a low overpotential (~150 mV at 10 mA/cm2) and small Tafel slope (41 mV/dec). To further explain the improved performance, the local electronic structure was investigated by X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis, proving the presence of unsaturated sulfur atoms and strong electronic coupling between MoS2 and SWNT. This study provides an in-situ synthetic route to create new multifunctional flexible hybridized catalysts and useful insights into the relationships among the catalyst microstructure, electronic structure, and properties.

Keywords: flexible, MoS2 , hydrogen evolution, unsaturated-sulfur-rich, X-ray absorption near-edge structure

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 February 2016
Revised: 06 April 2016
Accepted: 08 April 2016
Published: 14 May 2016
Issue date: July 2016

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support of the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2014CB848900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1232131, U1532112, 11375198, and 11574280), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. WK2310000053), User with Potential from CAS Hefei Science Center (No. 2015HSC-UP020) and Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education) Nankai University. L. S. thanks the recruitment program of global experts, the CAS Hundred Talent Program. We also thank the Shanghai synchrotron Radiation Facility (14W1, SSRF), the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (1W1B and soft-X-ray endstation, BSRF) and the Hefei Synchrotron Radiation Facility (MCD and Photoemission Endstations, NSRL) for help in characterizations.

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