Electrochemical sulfidation of WS2 nanoarrays: strong dependence of hydrogen evolution activity on transition metal sulfide surface composition

Daniel Escalera-López; Ross Griffin; Mark Isaacs; Karen Wilson; Richard E. Palmer; Neil V. Rees

doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2017.06.016

Electrochemical sulfidation of WS₂ nanoarrays: strong dependence of hydrogen evolution activity on transition metal sulfide surface composition

Daniel Escalera-López, Ross Griffin, Mark Isaacs, Karen Wilson, Richard E. Palmer, Neil V. Rees^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The activity of transition metal sulfides for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) can be increased by sulfur-enrichment of active metal-sulfide sites. In this report, we investigate the electrochemical sulfidation of atmospherically aged WS₂ nanoarrays with respect to enhancing HER activity. In contrast to MoS₂, it is found that sulfidation diminishes HER activity. Electrochemical and XPS experiments suggest the involvement of insoluble tungsten oxides in the altered HER and electron transfer properties. This demonstrates the strong dependence of the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) composition with the successful sulfur incorporation and subsequent HER activity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	106-111
Number of pages	6
Journal	Electrochemistry Communications
Volume	81
Early online date	16 Jun 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elecom.2017.06.016
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2017

Bibliographical note

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).

Funding: EPSRC (EP/L015749/1 and EP/G037116/1)).

Keywords

hydrogen evolution
nanoarrays
sulfidation
transition metal dichalcogenides
tungsten disulfide

Access to Document

10.1016/j.elecom.2017.06.016Licence: CC BY 3.0

Electrochemical sulfidation of WS(2) nanoarrays
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/).
Final published version, 929 KBLicence: CC BY 3.0

Cite this

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title = "Electrochemical sulfidation of WS2 nanoarrays: strong dependence of hydrogen evolution activity on transition metal sulfide surface composition",

abstract = "The activity of transition metal sulfides for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) can be increased by sulfur-enrichment of active metal-sulfide sites. In this report, we investigate the electrochemical sulfidation of atmospherically aged WS2 nanoarrays with respect to enhancing HER activity. In contrast to MoS2, it is found that sulfidation diminishes HER activity. Electrochemical and XPS experiments suggest the involvement of insoluble tungsten oxides in the altered HER and electron transfer properties. This demonstrates the strong dependence of the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) composition with the successful sulfur incorporation and subsequent HER activity.",

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note = "{\textcopyright} 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/). Funding: EPSRC (EP/L015749/1 and EP/G037116/1)).",

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AU - Escalera-López, Daniel

AU - Griffin, Ross

AU - Isaacs, Mark

AU - Wilson, Karen

AU - Palmer, Richard E.

AU - Rees, Neil V.

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AB - The activity of transition metal sulfides for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) can be increased by sulfur-enrichment of active metal-sulfide sites. In this report, we investigate the electrochemical sulfidation of atmospherically aged WS2 nanoarrays with respect to enhancing HER activity. In contrast to MoS2, it is found that sulfidation diminishes HER activity. Electrochemical and XPS experiments suggest the involvement of insoluble tungsten oxides in the altered HER and electron transfer properties. This demonstrates the strong dependence of the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) composition with the successful sulfur incorporation and subsequent HER activity.

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KW - sulfidation

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