Controllable fabrication and structure evolution of hierarchical 1T-MoS2 nanospheres for efficient hydrogen evolution

The layered materials have demonstrated great prospects as cost-effective substitutes for precious electrocatalysts in hydrogen evolution reaction. Research efforts have been devoted to synthesizing highly conductive MoS2with the substantial cardinal plane and edge active sites.Here, we successfully synthesized a hierarchical 1T/2H–MoS2with sodium ion insertion via a facile hydrothermal method. The contents of the 1T-phase can be flexibly controlled by different hydrothermal temperatures(160 ～ 200°C). And the modified uniformly dispersed 1T/2H–MoS2nanospheres with different d spacings were designed to enhance the electrocatalytic efficiency by adding SiO2and through the ion exchange process of Na OH and HF solution. The as-synthesized Na+intercalated 1T-MoS2nanosphere with an expanded interlayer of 0.95 nm obtained at 160°C exhibits a prominent electrocatalytic performance of hydrogen evolution reaction with a comparable overpotential of 255 m V and a remarkably small Tafel slope of 44 m V/decade. Therefore, this study provides a facile and controllable strategy to yield interlayerexpanded 1T-MoS2nanospheres, making it a potentially competitive hydrogen evolution catalyst for the hydrogen cell.