Amorphous phosphorus-doped MoS 2 catalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract Splitting water is an important method for producing clean and sustainable hydrogen to replace finite fossil fuels in future energy systems. MoS 2 is reported as a promising catalyst without noble metallic elements to accelerate the rate of the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction. However, there is a real need and strong demand for further improvement of the MoS 2 -based catalyst. In the present study, a novel amorphous phosphorus-doped MoS 2 nanocomposite (P-MoS 2 ) is prepared by a facile hydrothermal method. Compared with crystalline molybdenum disulfide, the amorphous P-doped MoS 2 catalyst exhibits much better activity with a smaller Tafel slope of 39 mV dec −1 . Moreover, good stability is also demonstrated over the P-MoS 2 catalyst in acidic electrolyte. This highly active amorphous P-doped MoS 2 catalyst is a promising candidate to facilitate the development of economical hydrogen production systems.