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Nano Research 2023, 16(4): 5419-5426 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5170-0
Research Article | Issue | Published: 05 December 2022

In-situ imaging of strain-induced enhancement of hydrogen evolution activity on the extruded MoO2 sheets

Show Author's Information Mansheng Liao,  Qiaomei Zhu,  Shuhua Li,  Qiongqiong Li,  Ziting Tao,  Yongchun Fu( )
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China
Keywords:
strain engineering, visual characterization, electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope, noise enhancement
Topics:
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Cite this article:
Liao M, Zhu Q, Li S, et al. In-situ imaging of strain-induced enhancement of hydrogen evolution activity on the extruded MoO2 sheets. Nano Research, 2023, 16(4): 5419-5426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5170-0
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Strain engineering is a useful strategy for modifying the catalytic activity of electrocatalysts. However, in-situ visual characterization of the strain effect on the catalytic activity at nanoscale remains a huge challenge. Herein, we performed in-situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM) imaging measurements at the local strained regions of extruded single-crystal molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) sheets with combination of current noise analysis (n-EC-STM). The intensity-enhanced noise was observed at the local strained region compared to the unstrained regions in the same frame, which reveals the positive effect of compressive strain on the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of MoO2 provided that the intensity of noise is positively correlated with catalytic HER Faradic current. Therefore, we clearly “see” the strain-induced enhancement of HER activity of MoO2 at nanoscale by means of noise visualization. This work extends the visual characterization of strain engineering in electrocatalysis and related fields.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

In-situ imaging of strain-induced enhancement of hydrogen evolution activity on the extruded MoO2 sheets

Show Author's information Mansheng Liao, Qiaomei Zhu, Shuhua Li, Qiongqiong Li, Ziting Tao, Yongchun Fu( )
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China

Abstract

Strain engineering is a useful strategy for modifying the catalytic activity of electrocatalysts. However, in-situ visual characterization of the strain effect on the catalytic activity at nanoscale remains a huge challenge. Herein, we performed in-situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM) imaging measurements at the local strained regions of extruded single-crystal molybdenum dioxide (MoO2) sheets with combination of current noise analysis (n-EC-STM). The intensity-enhanced noise was observed at the local strained region compared to the unstrained regions in the same frame, which reveals the positive effect of compressive strain on the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of MoO2 provided that the intensity of noise is positively correlated with catalytic HER Faradic current. Therefore, we clearly “see” the strain-induced enhancement of HER activity of MoO2 at nanoscale by means of noise visualization. This work extends the visual characterization of strain engineering in electrocatalysis and related fields.

Keywords: strain engineering, visual characterization, electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope, noise enhancement

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 August 2022
Revised: 23 September 2022
Accepted: 09 October 2022
Published: 05 December 2022
Issue date: April 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22072039) and the Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (No. HNU-531118010220).

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