Hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions of molybdenum disulfide synthesized by hydrothermal and plasma method

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is synthesized via a facile hydrothermal method and modified by using ambient solution plasma for bifunctional activities of hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER). The synthesized MoS2 exhibits low overpotential of -0.06 V and 1.22 Vat 10 mA cm(-2) with small Tafel slope (33 and 62 mV dec(-1)) for HER and OER, respectively, which it is comparable to platinum (30 and 172 mV dec (-1)). The high HER and OER performance attributes to increased electrochemical active surface area by twice and reduced impedance by almost twice compared to precursor MoS2 which has no plasma treatment, indicating that the plasma treatment introduces catalytic active surface area, which is a key factor for the efficient HER and OER and provides a positive effect on HER and OER performance. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.