Oxidized carbon fiber supported vertical WS2 nanosheets arrays as efficient 3 D nanostructure electrocatalyts for hydrogen evolution reaction

Oxidized carbon fiber (oCF) as support successfully realizes the vertical growth of uniform WS2 nanosheets arrays for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via a facile hydrothermal process. Thanks to oxygen functional groups on oCF, vertical WS2 nanosheets structures have grown more easily on oCF, which can provide better dispersion, short charge transfer distance and more exposed active sites for HER in comparison with bulk WS2 and WS2 nanosheets on bare carbon fiber (CF) fabricated at the same condition. The electrochemical measurements confirmed that WS2/oCF possesses better HER activity than bulk WS2 and WS2/CF. Especially, the 10-h stability with unchanged vertical WS2 nanosheets morphology further demonstrate the positive effect of oxygen functional groups on the enhanced vertical structure and close combination between WS2 and oCF. It may offer a facile way to realize more exposed active sites from stable electrocatalyst hybrids of transition metal sulfides by surface oxidization of carbon supports.(C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.