Synthesis of Vermicular Molybdenum Sulfide Nanoflowers Grown Vertically by Nitrogen‐Doped Self‐Template Method and Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

ABSTRACT

As an important clean and renewable energy source, hydrogen has advantages such as zero carbon emissions, high energy density, and rapid refueling, which is of great significance to energy transition. Regrettably, hydrogen is still mainly derived from fossil fuels, due to the high cost of green electrolytic water hydrogen production. The cost of electrolyzing water is limited by the precious metal catalysts used in the hydrogen evolution reaction, and the kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction in a cheap alkaline environment is slow. To solve this problem, a low‐cost vermicular ultrathin molybdenum disulfide nanosheet heterojunctions were successfully synthesized via a self‐template orientation approach. The resulting unique morphology effectively mitigates the intrinsic limitations of molybdenum disulfide, such as aggregation and restacking, thereby enhancing the availability of edge‐active sites. Furthermore, nitrogen incorporation improves the electronic conductivity of the MoS ₂ ‐w substrate, facilitating rapid electron transfer to the ultrathin two‐dimensional nanosheets and significantly modulating the hydrogen adsorption Gibbs free energy, thereby strengthening intrinsic catalytic activity. The optimized N‐MoS ₂ ‐w catalyst exhibits an overpotential of 149.2 mV for hydrogen evolution in 1 M KOH at a current density of 10 mA cm ⁻² , a Tafel slope of only 59.58 mV dec ⁻¹ , and demonstrates excellent long‐term operational stability.