One-Step Hydrothermal Fabrication of Three-dimensional MoS(2) Nanoflower using Polypyrrole as Template for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Herein, a facile and cost-effective strategy for hydrothermal synthesis of three-dimensional (3D) MoS(2) with adequate active edge sites and advanced hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance using polypyrrole (PPy) as template is reported. The MoS(2) is first thermally nucleated using hexaammonium heptamolybdate tetrahydrate (NH(4))(6)Mo(7)O(24)·4H(2)O and thiourea as precursor in the presence of PPy, and then they are further annealed to remove PPy at higher temperature to generate 3D MoS(2)-P. Morphology and composition characterizations reveal that the 3D MoS(2)-P exhibits a nanoflower morphology. It presents larger stretched “thin folding leaves” and higher mesoporous volume of 0.608 cm(3) g(−1) than the MoS(2) without PPy as template. Importantly, the 3D MoS(2)-P shows enhanced HER catalytic activity (onset potential at −100 mV) than previously reports that MoS(2)-based HER catalysts. The large “thin folding leaves” possessing efficient edge active sites and defects are responsible to for the enhanced HER performance, while the high mesoporous volume facilitates the transfer of reaction substrate. Our study provides a facile and cost-effective method for synthesis of 3D MoS(2) with advanced HER performances, which has great potential for larger-scale production and practical industrial applications.