Impact of histidine amino acid on 2D molybdenum disulfide catalytic properties for hydrogen evolution reaction

Hybridization of layered 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) films via intercalation of guest molecules and ions has recently emerged as a powerful tool to enhance its catalytic activity and stability of electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction. In this study, we report that intercalation of histidine amino acid fragments, formed via the thermal decomposition of amino acid to the low molecular weight planar peptide species -C-alpha-CO-N-C-alpha-, in an inter sheet space of nanostructured MoS2 during the hydrothermal synthesis results in the surprisingly high hydrogen evolution reaction catalytic activity and stability. We ascribed this effect to the preferred formation and protection of 1T-MoS2 phase from the transformation to more stable 2H-MoS2 phase during hydrogen evolution reaction processing triggered by the inserted peptides species. Scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry methods were applied for characterization of the synthesized products exposing histidine impact. [GRAPHICS] .