AUTHOR=Xiao Zhaohui , Luo Shengdao , Duan Wei , Zhang Xu , Han Shixing , Liu Yipu , Yang Liang , Lin Shiwei 

TITLE=Doughty-electronegative heteroatom-induced defective MoS2 for the hydrogen evolution reaction

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2022.1064752

DOI=10.3389/fchem.2022.1064752

ISSN=2296-2646

ABSTRACT=<p>Producing hydrogen through water electrolysis is one of the most promising green energy storage and conversion technologies for the long-term development of energy-related hydrogen technologies. MoS<sub>2</sub> is a very promising electrocatalyst which may replace precious metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, doughty-electronegative heteroatom defects (halogen atoms such as chlorine, fluorine, and nitrogen) were successfully introduced in MoS<sub>2</sub> by using a large-scale, green, and simple ball milling strategy to alter its electronic structure. The physicochemical properties (morphology, crystallization, chemical composition, and electronic structure) of the doughty-electronegative heteroatom-induced defective MoS<sub>2</sub> (N/Cl-MoS<sub>2</sub>) were identified using SEM, TEM, Raman, XRD, and XPS. Furthermore, compared with bulk pristine MoS<sub>2</sub>, the HER activity of N/Cl-MoS<sub>2</sub> significantly increased from 442 mV to 280 mV at a current of 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>. Ball milling not only effectively reduced the size of the catalyst material, but also exposed more active sites. More importantly, the introduced doughty-electronegative heteroatom optimized the electronic structure of the catalyst. Therefore, the doughty-electronegative heteroatom induced by mechanical ball milling provides a useful reference for the large-scale production of green, efficient, and low-cost catalyst materials.</p>