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Free keywords:
Electrocatalyst, MoS 2, Semimetal, Sulfur vacancies
Abstract:
The presence of elemental vacancies in materials are inevitable according to statistical thermodynamics, which will decide the chemical and physical properties of the investigated system. However, the controlled manipulation of vacancies for specific applications is a challenge. Here we report a facile method for creating large concentrations of S vacancies in the inert basal plane of MoS 2 supported on semimetal CoMoP 2 . With a small applied potential, S atoms can be removed in the form of H 2 S due to the optimized free energy of formation. The existence of vacancies favors electron injection from the electrode to the active site by decreasing the contact resistance. As a consequence, the catalytic current is increased by 221% with the vacancy-rich MoS 2 as electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A small overpotential of 75 mV is needed to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm −2 , which is considered among the best values achieved for MoS 2 . It is envisaged that this work may provide a new strategy for utilizing the semimetal phase for structuring MoS 2 into a multi-functional material. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
