Ru-Doped Induced Phase Engineering of MoS<sub>2</sub> for Boosting Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) holds great potential as a sustainable strategy for green hydrogen production. However, it still faces significant challenges due to the lack of highly efficient electrocatalysts. Herein, a synergistic approach by incorporating Ru atoms into MoS<s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Renjie Li, Meng Yu, Junjie Li, Ning Wang, Xiaolong Yang, Yanhua Peng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Nanomaterials
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/15/10/777
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) holds great potential as a sustainable strategy for green hydrogen production. However, it still faces significant challenges due to the lack of highly efficient electrocatalysts. Herein, a synergistic approach by incorporating Ru atoms into MoS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets to optimize the structure and conductivity has been proposed, which could improve the HER performance of MoS<sub>2</sub> under alkaline conditions. Combining theoretical calculations and structural characterizations, it is demonstrated that the Ru atom introduction leads to the localized distortions of MoS<sub>2</sub>, generating additional active sites for H* adsorption, and reduces the free energy to adsorb and desorb hydrogen. Furthermore, the Ru introduction makes partial transformation from the 2H phase to the 1T phase in MoS<sub>2</sub>, which results in the change of the electronic structure and further enhances the electrical conductivity. As a result, the Ru-doped MoS<sub>2</sub> electrocatalysts exhibit the high HER activities with the low overpotentials of 61 mV and 79 mV at 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> in 1.0 M KOH and alkaline seawater, respectively. This work provides a novel design strategy for enhancing HER activity through the synergistic modulation of structural and electronic properties, offering valuable insights for the development of efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution.
ISSN:2079-4991