Boosting hydrogen evolution on MoS2 via synergistic regulation of interlayer dislocations and interlayer spacing

High out-of-plane charge transfer resistance, along with a low concentration of exposed catalytic sites in multilayer MoS2 hinder its application in catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Cooperative regulation of interlayer spacing and interlayer dislocation would be an efficacious approach to enhance electrical conductivity, increase the availability of active sites and facilitate mass transfer. Here, we synthesized MoS2 nanotubes composed of interlayer-expanded MoS2 nanosheets with interlayer dislocations (IE@IDs-MoS2 NSs) by a bubble template method. The interlayer spacing could be expanded to form ultrafast water transport nanochannels. The out-of-plane charge transport in vertically direction can be accelerated by tuning interlayer dislocations. The IE@IDs-MoS2 NSs exhibit extraordinary kinetic metrics for electrocatalytic HER, showing a low overpotential of 49 mV at a geometric current density of 10 mA cm−2, a small Tafel slope of 52 mV dec−1, and a long-term stability of 70 h with current marginal increasing. This work affords fresh insights for developing effective catalysts to accelerate HER by interlayer spacing and dislocations engineering.