Doping-Assisted Phase Changing Effect on MoS2 Towards Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Acidic and Alkaline pH

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) was improved through nitrogen (N) doping in molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) due to the formation of 1T-metallic phase as compared to the thermodynamically stable 2H-semiconducting phase. Generally, the phase transition of MoS2 from semiconducting 2H to metallic 1T was carried out by chemical intercalation method. A facile solvothermal synthetic procedure is used to organize 1T@2H MoS2 nanoflower by incorporating N in MoS2 crystal lattice which improved the catalytic activity with the generation of metallic property of MoS2. Optimized N doping is an effective strategy for the development of mixed phase MoS2. Physicochemical characterization techniques confirmed the formation of hybrid phase (1T@2H) MoS2 by N incorporation. A tuned dopant concentration in MoS2 crystal lattice effectively enhanced the catalytic performance by modifying the physical and chemical properties. Moreover, optimal N doped MoS2 offered a very low overpotential of similar to 108 and similar to 141 mV to reach the benchmarking current density of 10 mA cm(-2) for HER in acidic and basic medium, respectively. This work elucidated a rational implantation of phase engineering, which is an efficient strategy to develop efficient electrocatalysts, shedding light on the improvement of transition metal-based electrocatalyst in renewable energy technologies.