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

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2

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 ZhangSara 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^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

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

210 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Article number	57
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2
Publication status	Published - Dec 1 2020
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2

Cite this

He, Y., Tang, P., Hu, Z., He, Q., Zhu, C., Wang, L., Zeng, Q., Golani, P., Gao, G., Fu, W., Huang, Z., Gao, C., Xia, J., Wang, X., Wang, X., Zhu, C., Ramasse, Q. M., Zhang, A., An, B., ... Liu, Z. (2020). Engineering grain boundaries at the 2D limit for the hydrogen evolution reaction. Nature Communications, 11(1), Article 57. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2

@article{46f8b1536d2046e2a0f7dfec9ff65f12,

title = "Engineering grain boundaries at the 2D limit for the hydrogen evolution reaction",

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.",

author = "Yongmin He and Pengyi Tang and Zhili Hu and Qiyuan He and Chao Zhu and Luqing Wang and Qingsheng Zeng and Prafful Golani and Guanhui Gao and Wei Fu and Zhiqi Huang and Caitian Gao and Juan Xia and Xingli Wang and Xuewen Wang and Chao Zhu and Ramasse, {Quentin M.} and Ao Zhang and Boxing An and Yongzhe Zhang and Sara Mart{\'i}-S{\'a}nchez and Morante, {Joan Ramon} and Liang Wang and Tay, {Beng Kang} and Yakobson, {Boris I.} and Achim Trampert and Hua Zhang and Minghong Wu and Wang, {Qi Jie} and Jordi Arbiol and Zheng Liu",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020, The Author(s).",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2",

language = "English",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

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He, Y, Tang, P, Hu, Z, He, Q, Zhu, C, Wang, L, Zeng, Q, Golani, P, Gao, G, Fu, W, Huang, Z, Gao, C, Xia, J, Wang, X, Wang, X, Zhu, C, Ramasse, QM, Zhang, A, An, B, Zhang, Y, Martí-Sánchez, S, Morante, JR, Wang, L, Tay, BK, Yakobson, BI, Trampert, A, Zhang, H, Wu, M, Wang, QJ, Arbiol, J & Liu, Z 2020, 'Engineering grain boundaries at the 2D limit for the hydrogen evolution reaction', Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 57. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13631-2

TY - JOUR

T1 - Engineering grain boundaries at the 2D limit for the hydrogen evolution reaction

AU - He, Yongmin

AU - Tang, Pengyi

AU - Hu, Zhili

AU - He, Qiyuan

AU - Zhu, Chao

AU - Wang, Luqing

AU - Zeng, Qingsheng

AU - Golani, Prafful

AU - Gao, Guanhui

AU - Fu, Wei

AU - Huang, Zhiqi

AU - Gao, Caitian

AU - Xia, Juan

AU - Wang, Xingli

AU - Wang, Xuewen

AU - Zhu, Chao

AU - Ramasse, Quentin M.

AU - Zhang, Ao

AU - An, Boxing

AU - Zhang, Yongzhe

AU - Martí-Sánchez, Sara

AU - Morante, Joan Ramon

AU - Wang, Liang

AU - Tay, Beng Kang

AU - Yakobson, Boris I.

AU - Trampert, Achim

AU - Zhang, Hua

AU - Wu, Minghong

AU - Wang, Qi Jie

AU - Arbiol, Jordi

AU - Liu, Zheng

PY - 2020/12/1

Y1 - 2020/12/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

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