2D molybdenum disulphide nanosheets incorporated with single heteroatoms for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction

2D nanosheets give enhanced surface area to volume ratios in particle morphology and they can also provide defined surface sites to disperse foreign atoms. Placing atoms of catalytic interests on the 2D nanosheets as Single atom Catalysts (SAC) represents one of the novel approaches due to their unique but tunable electronic and steric characteristics. Here in this mini-review, we particularly highlight some recent and important developments on heteroatoms doped MoS2 nanosheets (SAC-MoS2) as catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from water, which may form the core to oepn up to a flagship of important renewable tehnologies in future. It is shown that the nature of dopants, doping positions and polytypes of MoS2 nanosheets are the determining factors on the overall catalytic abilities of these functionalised nanosheets. This may serve to obtain atomic models to lead to further understanding on ‘metal-support interaction’ in catalysis.