Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 10, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12831-0
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Funding
- University of Glasgow
- EPSRC [EP/P001653/1, EP/R01308X/1]
- Carnegie Trust for a Research Incentive Grant [RIG007428]
- Royal Society [UF150104]
- Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [SFRH/BPD/110419/2015]
- University College London [PR16195]
- Diamond Light Source
- National Research, Development and Innovation Office (Hungary) grant [FK 125063]
- federal state of Schleswig-Holstein
- German research foundation [CRC 1261]
- [PTDC/QUI-QFI/29236/2017]
- [PTDC/QUIQFI/31896/2017]
- [UID/MULTI/04046/2019]
- [UID/MULTI/00612/2019]
- EPSRC [EP/J015156/1, EP/K023004/1, EP/P001653/1, EP/R01308X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [UID/Multi/00612/2019, UID/Multi/04046/2019] Funding Source: FCT
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The electrochemical generation of hydrogen is a key enabling technology for the production of sustainable fuels. Transition metal chalcogenides show considerable promise as catalysts for this reaction, but to date there are very few reports of tellurides in this context, and none of these transition metal telluride catalysts are especially active. Here, we show that the catalytic performance of metallic 1T'-MoTe2 is improved dramatically when the electrode is held at cathodic bias. As a result, the overpotential required to maintain a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) decreases from 320 mV to just 178 mV. We show that this rapid and reversible activation process has its origins in adsorption of H onto Te sites on the surface of 1T'-MoTe2. This activation process highlights the importance of subtle changes in the electronic structure of an electrode material and how these can influence the subsequent electro-catalytic activity that is displayed.
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