Nitrogen doped MoS2 nanosheets synthesized via a low-temperature process as electrocatalysts with enhanced activity for hydrogen evolution reaction

Highly active and earth-abundant catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) play a crucial in the development of efficient water splitting to produce hydrogen fuel. Here, we reported a simple, facile and effective strategy to fabricate N-doped molybdenum sulfide (N-doped MoS2) as noble metal-free catalysts for HER. Compared with pure MoS2, the obtained N-doped MoS2 catalyst revealed enhanced HER performance with low overpotential of -168 mV (-10 mA cm(-2)), small Tafel slope of 40.5 mV dec(-1) and excellent stability. The superior HER activity may originate from both the exposed Mo active sites due to S defects and the optimized electron density state of S atoms by N doping. More importantly, due to its simple synthesis method, earth-abundant catalysts and high catalytic activity, the N-doped MoS2 will become a promising HER catalysts for water splitting. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.