MoS₂ nanoflower incorporated with Au/Pt nanoparticles for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by effective catalysts has been extensively investigated as a promising way to produce H₂ as a clean and sustainable energy source. Previous studies have identified Pt as one of the most efficient catalysts due to the fast kinetics and the moderate hydrogen binding energy, while the high-cost of Pt restrains the practical applications. In this research, we present a hydrothermal method to fabricate the hybrid of nanoscale noble metals incorporated in the earth-abundant material MoS₂. The results indicate that incorporation of a small amount of Au and Pt strongly enhances the HER performance compared with pure MoS₂, which attributes to the enhanced electrical charge transfer, increased active sites, and reduced resistance. Especially, the electrocatalytic performance of the as-synthesized 5% weight loading Pt-MoS₂ is comparable with the commercial 10% Pt/C catalyst, with a low overpotential of 103 mV vs. RHE at the current density of 10 mA cm⁻² and Tafel slope of 56 mV dec^–1. The sample also exhibits excellent durability, and the low amount of noble metal usage could reduce the cost to a large extent, making it more practical to be applied in hydrogen generation. The strategy to control the particle size with the various morphologies of the supporting material MoS₂ may also be useful to develop other noble metal–based catalysts. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].