Sadik Cogal, Matej Mičušík, Mário Kotlár, Mária Omastová
In: Materials Chemistry and Physics, Volume 333, 130354
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2024.130354
Abstract
The development of affordable and plentiful electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting process has received considerable interest in recent years. Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD)-based materials are highly promising catalysts for electrochemical water splitting because of their tunable physical and electrical properties. This study presents molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2) hybrid nanostructures prepared via a hydrothermal method in the presence of polyaniline (PANI) conductive supports with different morphologies. Different PANI supports were prepared via oxidative chemical polymerization in the presence of different surfactants. The MoSe2@PANI nanostructures obtained were also modified with cobalt by electrodeposition approach to enhance the electrocatalytic performance of the resulting catalysts. The resulting cobalt-modified MoSe2@PANI-sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) (Co–MoSe2@PANI-SDS) catalyst exhibited low overpotentials 339 mV and 134 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with low Tafel slopes 51 mV dec−1 and 110 mV dec−1 for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), respectively. The improved performance of Co–MoSe2@PANI-SDS can be attributed to the incorporation of PANI-SDS as an ideal conducting support and cobalt interactions with both the MoSe2 and the conducting polymer. This work would be insightful in developing new electrocatalysts with bifunctional activities for efficient production of hydrogen through water splitting.