Preparation of Mn, P co-doped MoS2 microflowers and its hydrogen evolution performance for water electrolysis

An anion-cation co-doping strategy was proposed, and the Mn and P co-doped MoS2 microflowers (Mn, P)-MoS2 catalyst were prepared successfully by one-step hydrothermal reaction for hydrogen evolution reaction(HER). The structure, morphology, chemical composition and valence state were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectra, scanning electron microscope, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy, and the HER performance was performed by electrochemical workstation for (Mn, P)-MoS2. The results show that Mn and P atoms are successfully incorporated into the MoS2 lattice, and the hydrogen evolution overpotential of (Mn, P)-MoS2 at a current density of 10 mA·cm-2 is 235 mV and a small Tafel slope of 61.2 mV·dec-1, which are lower than those of the pure MoS2 and Mn-cation or P-anion doped MoS2. Meanwhile, (Mn, P)-MoS2 presents excellent HER stability. The excellent HER performance of (Mn, P)-MoS2 could be attributed to: the incorporation of Mn and P activates the inert basal plane, optimizes the electronic structure and increases the conductivity of MoS2. The synergistic interaction between Mn and P realizes the complementary advantage of single anion or cation doping, and it increases the number of active sites at basal plane for hydrogen evolution, thus speeding up the Volmer electrochemical desorption step.