Design of MoS2/Graphene van der Waals Heterostructure as Highly Efficient and Stable Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution in Acidic and Alkaline Media

The thermodynamically stable phase of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is evaluated as a promising and durable nonprecious-metal electrocatalyst toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); however, its actual catalytic activity is restricted by an inert basal plane, low electronic conductivity, low density, and using efficiency of edged atoms. Moreover, 2D/2D van der Waals (vdws) heterostructures (HSs) with face-to-face contact can construct a highly coupled interface and are demonstrated to have immense potential for catalytic applications. In the present work, a 2D/2D hetero-layered architecture of an electrocatalyst, based on the alternate arrangement of ultrasmall monolayer MoS2 nanosheets (approximately 5-10 nm) and ultrathin graphene (G) sheets, is prepared by a facilely chemical process, which is named as MoS2/G HS. The unique structural characteristic of MoS2/G HS is in favor of accommodating more active sites as the centers of ad/desorption hydrogen and transferring and separating the charges at a coupled interface to improve the electronic conductivity and durability. The density functional theory calculation results further confirm that the alternately arranged G layers and MoS2 monolayers, as well as the expanded interplanar distance of 1.104 nm for MoS2/G HS, can exhibit a superior HER performance in both 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1.0 M KOH.