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Defective molybdenum sulfide quantum dots as highly active hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts

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Abstract

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a promising non-precious electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction with two-dimensional layered structure, has received increasing attention in recent years. Its electrocatalytic performance has been limited by the low active site content and poor conductivity. Herein, we report a facile and general ultrafast laser ablation method to synthesize MoS2 quantum dots (MS-QDs) for electrocatalytic HER with fully exposed active sites and highly enhanced conductivity. The MS-QDs were prepared by ultrafast laser ablation of the corresponding bulk material in aqueous solution, during which they were partially oxidized and formed defective structures. The as-prepared MS-QDs demonstrated high activity and stability in the electrocatalytic HER, owing to their very large surface area, defective structure, abundance of active sites, and high conductivity. The present MS-QDs can also find application in optics, sensing, energy storage, and conversion technologies.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Nos. 2015CB932500 and 2011CB013000) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 51210009, 51575309, 51522207 and 51302141). G. O. acknowledges the support from Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2016M600079). X. X. K. acknowledges the support from Beijing Nova Program (No. Z161100004916153). H. W. acknowledges the support from the 1000 Youth Talents Plan of China.

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  1. Gang Ou and Peixun Fan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Gang Ou, Yushuai Xu, Kai Huang, Hehe Wei, Wen Yu & Hui Wu

  2. Department of Chemistry and Collaborative Innovation Center for Nanomaterial Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Gang Ou & Yadong Li

  3. Laser Materials Processing Research Centre, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Peixun Fan, Hongjun Zhang & Minlin Zhong

  4. Institute of Microstructure and Property of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Xiaoxing Ke

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  1. Gang Ou
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  2. Peixun Fan
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  3. Xiaoxing Ke
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  9. Minlin Zhong
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Correspondence to Minlin Zhong or Hui Wu.

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Ou, G., Fan, P., Ke, X. et al. Defective molybdenum sulfide quantum dots as highly active hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts. Nano Res. 11, 751–761 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1684-2

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