Perpendicularly oriented few-layer MoSe2 on SnO2 nanotubes for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Maximizing the number of exposed active edges in newly emerged two-dimensional few-layer MoSe₂ nanostructures is a key issue to fully realize the excellent electrochemical properties of MoSe₂. In this work, a SnO₂@MoSe₂ nanostructure was successfully fabricated through a facile electrospinning technique combined with sintering and a solvothermal method. This rationally designed hierarchical architecture has perpendicularly oriented few-layered MoSe₂ nanosheets uniformly and fully covering both inner and outer surfaces of SnO₂ nanotubes, which exhibits excellent electrochemical activity as a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalyst with a small onset potential of −0.11 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a small Tafel slope of 51 mV per decade. This excellent performance may originate from the unique hierarchical tubular structure with fully exposed active edges and open spaces for fast electron/electrolyte transfer, enabling their potential to replace Pt as a future electrocatalyst in HER.