All The Catalytic Active Sites of MoS 2 for Hydrogen Evolution

MoS2 presents a promising low-cost catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but the understanding about its active sites has remained limited. Here we present an unambiguous study of the catalytic activities of all possible reaction sites of MoS2, including edge sites, sulfur vacancies, and grain boundaries. We demonstrate that, in addition to the well-known catalytically active edge sites, sulfur vacancies provide another major active site for the HER, while the catalytic activity of grain boundaries is much weaker. The intrinsic turnover frequencies (Tafel slopes) of the edge sites, sulfur vacancies, and grain boundaries are estimated to be 7.5 s–1 (65–75 mV/dec), 3.2 s–1 (65–85 mV/dec), and 0.1…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Award: DE-SC0012704
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-SC0012575, SC0012704
• NC
  North Carolina State University
• OO
  Office of Science

  Awards: DE-SC0012575, SC0012704, DE-SC0012704
• DO
  Division of Physics

  Award: PHY1338917
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences

  Awards: DE-SC0012704, SC0012704, SC0012575, DE-SC0012575