Atomically Precise Gold Nanoclusters Accelerate Hydrogen Evolution over MoS2 Nanosheets: The Dual Interfacial Effect
Abstract
Hydrogen generation via electrocatalytic water splitting holds great promise for future energy revolution. It is desirable to design abundant and efficient catalysts and achieve mechanistic understanding of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, this paper reports a strategy for improving HER performance of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) via introducing gold nanoclusters as a cocatalyst. Compared to plain MoS2 nanosheets, the Au25(SR)18/MoS2 nanocomposite exhibits enhanced HER activity with a small onset potential of −0.20 V (vs reversible hydrogen electrode) and a higher current density of 59.3 mA cm−2 at the potential of −0.4 V. In addition to the interfacial interaction between nanoclusters and MoS2, the interface between the Au25 core and the surface ligands (thiolate vs selenolate) is also discovered to distinctly affect the catalytic performance. This work highlights the promise of metal nanoclusters in boosting the HER performance via tailoring the interfacial electronic interactions between gold nanoclusters and MoS2 nanosheets, as well as the interface between metal core and surface ligands.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 24, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1002/smll.201701519
Entities
People
- Hui Zhang
- Judith C. Yang
- Renxi Jin
- Rongchao Jin
- Shuo Zhao
- Stephen D. House
- Yongbo Song
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Carnegie Mellon University
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Pittsburgh