Vertically molybdenum disulfide nanosheets on carbon cloth using CVD by controlling growth atmosphere for electrocatalysis

Abstract Molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 ) has been deemed as one of the promising noble-metal-free electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but it suffers from the inert basal plane and low electronic conductivity. Regulating the morphology of MoS 2 during the synthesis on conductive substrates is a synergistic strategy for enhancing the HER performance. In this work, vertical MoS 2 nanosheets were fabricated on carbon cloth (CC) using an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition method. The growth process could be effectively tuned through introducing hydrogen gas during vapor deposition process, resulting in nanosheets with increased edge density. The mechanism for edge-enriching through controlling the growth atmosphere is systematically studied. The as-prepared MoS 2 exhibits excellent HER activity due to the combination of optimized microstructures and coupling with CC. Our findings provide new insights to design advanced MoS 2 -based electrocatalysts for HER.