High-Resolution Electrochemical Mapping of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Nanosheets

High-resolution scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) is used to image and quantitatively analyze the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytically active sites of 1H-MoS2 nanosheets, MoS2, and WS2 heteronanosheets. Using a 20 nm radius nanopipette and hopping mode scanning, the resolution of SECCM was beyond the optical microscopy limit and visualized a small triangular MoS2 nanosheet with a side length of ca. 130 nm. The electrochemical cell provides local cyclic voltammograms with a nanoscale spatial resolution for visualizing HER active sites as electrochemical images. The HER activity difference of edge, terrace, and heterojunction of MoS2 and WS2 were revealed. The SECCM imaging directly visualized the relationship of HER activity and number of MoS2 nanosheet layers and unveiled the heterogeneous aging state of MoS2 nanosheets. SECCM can be used for improving local HER activities by producing sulfur vacancies using electrochemical reaction at the selected region.