The effects of growth environments on WS2 in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) recently have attracted much attention because of their outstanding catalytic activity, low cost, and earth abundance in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Among these TMDs, MoS2 and WS2 are recognized as promising HER electrocatalysts and have been explored to be one of the can-didates for replacing precious metals. In this work, the electrocatalytic activity of WS2 grown in Ar-only, Ar + H2, and ambient environments were studied, where the WS2 was synthesized by thermolysis from (NH4)2WS4 pre -cursor. Different surface morphologies are shown under the different growth atmospheres. The structures of pure WS2, WS2 and WO3 mixed, and almost WO3 were prepared in different growth atmospheres of Ar-only, Ar + H2, and ambient environment, respectively. All the materials prepared in these different environments exhibit high crystalline characteristic. Especially, the pure WS2 grown in an Ar-only environment presents the preferred (103) lattice plane. The pure WS2 performs the best H2 evolution efficiency, indicating that high crystallinity and preferred (103) lattice plane could be relative to the electrocatalytic activity. The studies provide fundamental insight for further design and preparation of electrocatalysts, useful in the development of clean energy.