Controllable Growth and Defect Engineering of Vertical PtSe2 Nanosheets for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Two-dimensional (2D) PtSe2 has attracted intensive attention in energy-related fields, due to its high catalytic activity, electrical conductivity, and chemical stability, etc. However, the active sites of 2D PtSe2 nanosheets synthesized on conventional planar substrates are limited to the edge sites. Herein, the direct synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) vertically oriented 1T-PtSe2 nanosheets featured with abundant edge sites is reported on the nanoporous gold template via a chemical vapor deposition route. Moreover, Ar+ sputtering treatment of as-grown sample is introduced to generate more abundant surface defects, thus boosting the electrocatalytic activity of the inert basal planes. In this regard, the vertical growth configuration and abundant defects of PtSe2 nanosheets are revealed to afford remarkable electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction. This work hereby provides a new route for the morphology engineering of noble metal related transition-metal dichalcogenides toward 3D vertical configurations, which should promote their practical applications in high-current-density water splitting.