Structural engineering of ultrathin vertical NbS2 on carbon cloth by chemical vapor deposition for hydrogen evolution reaction

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with rich chemistry and diverse properties are considered promising candidates for applications in nanoscale electronics and energy conversion. Among the wide range of TMDs, niobium dichalcogenides (NbS[Formula: see text] are ubiquitously considered to be a great promise material for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its metallic 2D feature with good conductivity. However, a few reports focus on the systematic structural optimization of NbS 2 nanosheets on conductive substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) towards HER. Here, vertical NbS 2 nanoflowers are designed and constructed on carbon cloth using CVD. Systematic growth experiments are carried out to investigate the structure variation of the nanostructures. By tuning the growth temperature, the architecture with dense exposed basal planes is achieved, which exhibits highly structure-sensitive properties for HER. The results show NbS 2 microflowers with maximized edge and plane sites exhibited optimal catalytic performance. The growth mechanism of NbS 2 nanoplates on carbon cloth is further explored. These findings provide a guideline for optimization of microstructure and electrocatalytic activity for NbS 2 and broaden our vision for improving HER performance of novel 2D TMDs.