Facile one-step synthesis of porous hybrid material fabricated by 2D nanosheets of molybdenum disulfide and reduced graphene oxide for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

The electroreduction of water is a sustainable and environment-friendly way for sustainable hydrogen production. Herein 3D porous hybrid electrocatalysts, fabricated by ultrathin 2D nanosheets of molybdenum disulfide and reduced graphene oxide, have been prepared via a facile one-step hydrothermal route using hexamethylenetetramine as the template reagent. The as-prepared hybrids possess high specific surface areas and interconnected conductive graphene skeletons with vertically oriented MoS2 nanosheets. The hybrids exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction with a small overpotential of 97 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm–2 and a low Tafel slope of 70 mV dec−1, due to the synergetic effect of abundant active edge sites, efficient electron transfer, expedient hydrogen evolution routeway and convenient electrolyte diffusion.