Highly Effective Electrochemical Exfoliation of Ultrathin Tantalum Disulfide Nanosheets for Energy-Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysis.

Title Highly Effective Electrochemical Exfoliation of Ultrathin Tantalum Disulfide Nanosheets for Energy-Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysis.
Authors H. Chen; J. Si; S. Lyu; T. Zhang; Z. Li; C. Lei; L. Lei; C. Yuan; B. Yang; L. Gao; Y. Hou
Journal ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
DOI 10.1021/acsami.9b15039
Abstract

Developing highly efficient transition metal dichalcogenide electrocatalysts would be significantly beneficial for the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from water splitting. Herein, we reported novel ultrathin tantalum disulfide nanosheets (TaS NSs) prepared by electrochemically exfoliating bulk TaS with an alternating voltage in an acidic electrolyte. The obtained TaS NS electrocatalyst possessed an ultrathin structure with a lateral size of 2 ?m and a thickness of ?3 nm. Owing to the unique 2D structure, the achieved TaS NSs displayed remarkable electrocatalytic activity toward the HER by a small overpotential of 197 mV at 10 mA cm and a small Tafel slope of 100 mV dec in acidic solution, much lower than those of TaS (>547 mV and 216 mV dec, respectively) and other reported TaS-based HER electrocatalysts. Furthermore, highly efficient full water splitting could be realized with two electrodes in which TaS NSs acted as the cathode while Ir/C served as the anode, with help of two AA size batteries or solar cells. By replacing the oxygen evolution reaction with the urea oxidation reaction (UOR), bifunctional TaS NSs enabled an energy-effective HER process in the cathode and UOR process in the anode with decreased applied potential.

Citation H. Chen; J. Si; S. Lyu; T. Zhang; Z. Li; C. Lei; L. Lei; C. Yuan; B. Yang; L. Gao; Y. Hou.Highly Effective Electrochemical Exfoliation of Ultrathin Tantalum Disulfide Nanosheets for Energy-Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysis.. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2020. doi:10.1021/acsami.9b15039

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Sulfur

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