Enhanced electrocatalytic activity of MoSx on TCNQ-treated electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction
Type
ArticleAuthors
Chang, YunghuangNikam, Revannath D.
Lin, Chengte
Huang, Jingkai
Tseng, Chien-Chih

Hsu, Changlung
Cheng, Chiachin
Su, Chingyuan
Li, Lain-Jong

Chua, Daniel
KAUST Department
Material Science and Engineering ProgramPhysical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division
Date
2014-10-10Online Publication Date
2014-10-10Print Publication Date
2014-10-22Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/563805
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Molybdenum sulfide has recently attracted much attention because of its low cost and excellent catalytical effects in the application of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). To improve the HER efficiency, many researchers have extensively explored various avenues such as material modification, forming hybrid structures or modifying geometric morphology. In this work, we reported a significant enhancement in the electrocatalytic activity of the MoSx via growing on Tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) treated carbon cloth, where the MoSx was synthesized by thermolysis from the ammonium tetrathiomolybdate ((NH4)2MoS4) precursor at 170 °C. The pyridinic N- and graphitic N-like species on the surface of carbon cloth arising from the TCNQ treatment facilitate the formation of Mo5+ and S2 2- species in the MoSx, especially with S2 2- serving as an active site for HER. In addition, the smaller particle size of the MoSx grown on TCNQ-treated carbon cloth reveals a high ratio of edge sites relative to basal plane sites, indicating the richer effective reaction sites and superior electrocatalytic characteristics. Hence, we reported a high hydrogen evolution rate for MoSx on TCNQ-treated carbon cloth of 6408 mL g-1 cm-2 h-1 (286 mmol g-1 cm-2 h-1) at an overpotential of V = 0.2 V. This study provides the fundamental concepts useful in the design and preparation of transition metal dichalcogenide catalysts, beneficial in the development in clean energy.Citation
Chang, Y.-H., Nikam, R. D., Lin, C.-T., Huang, J.-K., Tseng, C.-C., Hsu, C.-L., … Chua, D. H. C. (2014). Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity of MoSxon TCNQ-Treated Electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 6(20), 17679–17685. doi:10.1021/am5039592Sponsors
This research was supported by National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore, under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP Award No. NRF-CRP 10-2012-6), Academia Sinica (IAMS and Nano program), and National Science Council Taiwan (NSC-99-2112-M-001-021-MY3). J.L. thanks the support from AOARD-134137.Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1021/am5039592