Photocatalytic properties of MoS2 membranes

MoS2 is a fascinating two-dimensional van der Waals material with outstanding electronic, optical and catalytic properties. Its high optical absorption up to 15% in the visible range for monolayers together with catalytic activity and photocatalytic stability makes single-layer MoS2 a very promising material for sunlight driven photocatalytic applications such as photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (HER). We demonstrate the photocatalytic activity regarding HER of exfoliated single- and few-layer MoS2 immersed in an acid electrolyte by cyclic voltammetry. We observe an increased catalytic activity of MoS2 with decreasing number of layers. In particular, monolayers exhibit high current densities, low onset potentials and high turnover frequencies. Edge sites and defects show higher activities than the basal plane. We furthermore demonstrate that HER activity is increased by illumination in the visible range.      «

MoS2 is a fascinating two-dimensional van der Waals material with outstanding electronic, optical and catalytic properties. Its high optical absorption up to 15% in the visible range for monolayers together with catalytic activity and photocatalytic stability makes single-layer MoS2 a very promising material for sunlight driven photocatalytic applications such as photocatalytic hydrogen evolution (HER). We demonstrate the photocatalytic activity regarding HER of exfoliated single- and few-laye...     »