One-pot synthesis of few-layered molybdenum disulfide anchored on N, S-codoped carbon for enhanced hydrogen generation

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are regarded as the inexpensive and stable electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Designing an electrocatalyst with few-layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) is one of the most effective methods to enhance the activity and durability for HER due to its abundant exposed rim-sites, fast electron transfer and high chemical stability. Herein, a green and facile one-pot approach is developed to synthesize few-layered MoS 2 /nitrogen, sulfur codoped porous carbon (MoS 2 /NSPC) electrocatalyst via pyrolyzing the in-situ formed molybdate-melamine complex (MoO x -MEL) within the self-assembled networks of melamine-trithiocyanuric acid (MT). The optimal MoS 2 /NSPC electrocatalyst exhibits excellent HER stability and activity with overpotential of 114 mV at 10 mA cm −2 in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 . Furthermore, few-layered tungsten disulfide anchored on N, S-codoped porous carbon (WS 2 /NSPC) with high HER activity can also be successfully synthesized by this strategy. It paves a universal way to design active sites–enriched few-layered dichalcogenides with high performance in the applications from energy conversion to storages.