Nature Communications (Jan 2020)
Engineering grain boundaries at the 2D limit for the hydrogen evolution reaction
- Yongmin He,
- Pengyi Tang,
- Zhili Hu,
- Qiyuan He,
- Chao Zhu,
- Luqing Wang,
- Qingsheng Zeng,
- Prafful Golani,
- Guanhui Gao,
- Wei Fu,
- Zhiqi Huang,
- Caitian Gao,
- Juan Xia,
- Xingli Wang,
- Xuewen Wang,
- Chao Zhu,
- Quentin M. Ramasse,
- Ao Zhang,
- Boxing An,
- Yongzhe Zhang,
- Sara Martí-Sánchez,
- Joan Ramon Morante,
- Liang Wang,
- Beng Kang Tay,
- Boris I. Yakobson,
- Achim Trampert,
- Hua Zhang,
- Minghong Wu,
- Qi Jie Wang,
- Jordi Arbiol,
- Zheng Liu
Affiliations
- Yongmin He
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Pengyi Tang
- Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Bellaterra
- Zhili Hu
- College of Aerospace Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
- Qiyuan He
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Chao Zhu
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Luqing Wang
- Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University
- Qingsheng Zeng
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Prafful Golani
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Guanhui Gao
- Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik Leibniz-Institut im Forschungsverbund Berlin Hausvogteiplatz
- Wei Fu
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Zhiqi Huang
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Caitian Gao
- Centre for Micro-/Nano-electronics (NOVITAS), School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Juan Xia
- Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
- Xingli Wang
- CNRS-International-NTU-THALES Research Alliance, Nanyang Technological University
- Xuewen Wang
- Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University
- Chao Zhu
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Quentin M. Ramasse
- SuperSTEM Laboratory, SciTech Daresbury Campus, Keckwick Lane
- Ao Zhang
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Boxing An
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology
- Yongzhe Zhang
- College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology
- Sara Martí-Sánchez
- Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Bellaterra
- Joan Ramon Morante
- Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), Jardins de les Dones de Negre 1, Sant Adrià del Besòs
- Liang Wang
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University
- Beng Kang Tay
- CNRS-International-NTU-THALES Research Alliance, Nanyang Technological University
- Boris I. Yakobson
- Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University
- Achim Trampert
- Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik Leibniz-Institut im Forschungsverbund Berlin Hausvogteiplatz
- Hua Zhang
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- Minghong Wu
- School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University
- Qi Jie Wang
- Center for OptoElectronics and Biophotonics, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering & The Photonics Institute, Nanyang Technological University
- Jordi Arbiol
- Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and BIST, Campus UAB, Bellaterra
- Zheng Liu
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 11,
no. 1
pp. 1 – 12
Abstract
Abstract Atom-thin transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have emerged as fascinating materials and key structures for electrocatalysis. So far, their edges, dopant heteroatoms and defects have been intensively explored as active sites for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) to split water. However, grain boundaries (GBs), a key type of defects in TMDs, have been overlooked due to their low density and large structural variations. Here, we demonstrate the synthesis of wafer-size atom-thin TMD films with an ultra-high-density of GBs, up to ~1012 cm−2. We propose a climb and drive 0D/2D interaction to explain the underlying growth mechanism. The electrocatalytic activity of the nanograin film is comprehensively examined by micro-electrochemical measurements, showing an excellent hydrogen-evolution performance (onset potential: −25 mV and Tafel slope: 54 mV dec−1), thus indicating an intrinsically high activation of the TMD GBs.
