1
|
Ogunkunle SA, Bouzid A, Hinsch JJ, Allen OJ, White JJ, Bernard S, Wu Z, Zhu Y, Wang Y. Defect engineering of 1T' MX2( M= Mo, W and X= S, Se) transition metal dichalcogenide-based electrocatalyst for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction. J Phys Condens Matter 2024; 36:145002. [PMID: 38157553 DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/ad19a4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024]
Abstract
The alkaline electrolyzer (AEL) is a promising device for green hydrogen production. However, their energy conversion efficiency is currently limited by the low performance of the electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). As such, the electrocatalyst design for the high-performance HER becomes essential for the advancement of AELs. In this work, we used both hydrogen (H) and hydroxyl (OH) adsorption Gibbs free energy changes as the descriptors to investigate the catalytic HER performance of 1T' transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in an alkaline solution. Our results reveal that the pristine sulfides showed better alkaline HER performance than their selenide counterparts. However, the activities of all pristine 1T' TMDs are too low to dissociate water. To improve the performance of these materials, defect engineering techniques were used to design TMD-based electrocatalysts for effective HER activity. Our density functional theory results demonstrate that introducing single S/Se vacancy defects can improve the reactivities of TMD materials. Yet, the desorption of OH becomes the rate-determining step. Doping defective MoS2with late 3d transition metal (TM) atoms, especially Cu, Ni, and Co, can regulate the reactivity of active sites for optimal OH desorption. As a result, the TM-doped defective 1T' MoS2can significantly enhance the alkaline HER performance. These findings highlight the potential of defect engineering technologies for the design of TMD-based alkaline HER electrocatalysts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Akinlolu Ogunkunle
- Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| | - Assil Bouzid
- Institut de Recherche sur les Céramiques (IRCER), UMR CNRS 7315-Université de Limoges, Limoges 87068, France
| | - Jack Jon Hinsch
- Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| | - Oscar J Allen
- Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| | - Jessica Jein White
- Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| | - Samuel Bernard
- Institut de Recherche sur les Céramiques (IRCER), UMR CNRS 7315-Université de Limoges, Limoges 87068, France
| | - Zhenzhen Wu
- Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| | - Yong Zhu
- School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| | - Yun Wang
- Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Southport 4222, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
White JJ, Liu J, Hinsch JJ, Wang Y. Theoretical understanding of the properties of stepped iron surfaces with van der Waals interaction corrections. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:2649-2657. [PMID: 33480923 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp05977c] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
The stepped surfaces in nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) play an essential role for environmental application. However, there is still currently a deficiency in the atomic understanding of stepped surface properties due to the limitation of the computational methodology. In this study, stepped Fe(210) and (211) surfaces were theoretically investigated using density functional theory (DFT) computations in terms of the flat Fe(110) surface. Our results suggest that the consideration of van der Waals (vdW) interaction correction is beneficial for the DFT study on Fe-based systems. The DF-cx method is found to be the most promising vdW correction method. The DF-cx results reveal that the stepped Fe(210) and Fe(211) surfaces experience significant surface relaxation and abnormal trends in their work function. Their electronic properties and reactivities of the surface atoms are strongly affected by the Fe coordination numbers and the strong adsorption strengths of oxygen on the surfaces are dependent on both the coordination number of the adsorbed atoms and the geometry of the adsorption sites.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jessica Jein White
- School of Environment and Science, Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia.
| | - Junxian Liu
- School of Environment and Science, Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia.
| | - Jack Jon Hinsch
- School of Environment and Science, Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia.
| | - Yun Wang
- School of Environment and Science, Centre for Clean Environment and Energy, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia.
| |
Collapse
|