Interlayer Spacing Regulation of Molybdenum Selenide Promotes Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution in Alkaline Media

The construction of heterostructures is a versatile tactic to enhance catalytic activity. However, it is still elusive to realize the modulation of the interlayer spacing in this way to further improve the performance. Here, strong interfacial coupling between CoSe2 and MoSe2 by constructing CoSe2/MoSe2 heterostructures is achieved. The interlayer spacing of MoSe2 is compressed by 0.3 angstrom. The enhanced charge transfer is validated by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Coupled with the morphology of hollow microtubes, which can facilitate the exposure of active sites, CoSe2/MoSe2 heterostructures reported here exhibit high activity (119 mV at 10 mA cm(-2)) and excellent stability with small degradation after 50 h operation, surpassing other analogous powdered electrocatalysts. This work sheds light on the importance of tuning the interlayer spacing to improve electrocatalytic activity.

Automated summary

The construction of heterostructures is an effective strategy to enhance catalytic activity, but achieving modulation of the interlayer spacing for further performance improvement remains a challenge. In this study, strong interfacial coupling between CoSe2 and MoSe2 was achieved by constructing CoSe2/MoSe2 heterostructures, resulting in a compressed interlayer spacing of MoSe2. The enhanced charge transfer was confirmed by spectroscopic techniques. Coupled with the morphology of hollow microtubes, the CoSe2/MoSe2 heterostructures exhibited high activity and excellent stability, surpassing other similar powdered electrocatalysts.