Ultrafine nano 1T-MoS2 monolayers with NiOx as dual co-catalysts over TiO2 photoharvester for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) of 1 T phase was found to potentially replace N as efficient co-catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, an ultrafine nano 1 T-MoS2 monolayer of around 10 nm was successfully synthesized and showed a high electrocatalytic HER activity with low overpotential of 78 mV at 10 mA cm(-2). When the 1 T-MoS2 is loaded onto P25 TiO2, its ultrafine size dramatically promotes the superior interface bonding with TiO2 and a high photocatalytic HER activity of 300.3 mu mol h(-1) is obtained. Furthermore, a strategy by introducing NiOx co-catalyst into the 1 T-MoS 2 /P25 to fabricate a dual co-catalyst composite 1 T-MoS2/P25/NiOx significantly improves the photocatalytic HER activity to 1629.1 mu mol h(-4) which is very close to Pt/P25 of 2196.8 mu mol h(-1). The close interface-bonding between the nanosized 1 T-MoS2 monolayer and P25 along with the assistance of NiOx results in the superior photocatalytic HER activity by the enhanced separation and transfer of the photogenerated electrons and holes.