Improving the Energetic Stability and Electrocatalytic Performance of Au/WSSe Single-Atom Catalyst with Tensile Strain

In the areas of catalysis and renewable energy conversion, the development of active and stable electrocatalysts continues to be a highly desirable and crucial aim. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) provide isolated active sites, high selectivity, and ease of separation from reaction systems, becoming a rapidly evolving research field. Unfortunately, the real roles and key factors of the supports that govern the catalytic properties of SACs remain uncertain. Herein, by means of the density functional theory calculations, in the Au/WSSe SAC, built by filling the single Au atom at the S vacancy site in WSSe monolayer, we find that the powerful binding between the single Au atom and the support is induced by the Au d and W d orbital hybridization, which is caused by the electron transfer between them. The extra tensile strain could further stabilize the Au/WSSe by raising the transfer electron and enhancing the orbital hybridization. Moreover, by dint of regulating the antibonding strength between the single Au atom and H atom, the extra tensile strain is capable of changing the electric-catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance of Au/WSSe as well. Remarkably, under the 1% tensile strain, the reaction barrier (0.06 eV) is only one third of that of free state. This theoretical work not only reveals the bonding between atomic sites and supports, but also opens an avenue to improve the electric-catalytic performance of SACs by adjusting the bonding with outer factors.