Facile synthesis of S-vacancy induced electrochemical HER activity in multilayered Sn doped MoS2

S-vacancy in MoS2 is known to enhance its HER activity but its creation by simple synthetic methods are yet to be explored. In this correspondence, we present a viable methodology for the synthesis of multilayered MoS2 and Sn doped MoS2 nanosheets having S deficiency. Sn doping in MoS2 lattice is confirmed by X-ray diffraction and Raman analysis. The surface morphological characteristic of the samples and valence states of the elements are examined using FESEM with EDAX, TEM and XPS analysis respectively. A reduction of 187 mV in the overpotential was observed for the Sn doped MoS2 accompanied by a significant decrease in Tafel slope which is attributed to the S-vacancy induced active sites. The obtained overpotential and Tafel slope values are in close resemblance with that of some of the reported exfoliated and few-layered MoS2.