Castoff derived Biomass‒carbon supported MoS2 nanosheets for hydrogen evolution reaction

Designing a low‒cost, large‒scale and highly‒active electrolytic hydrogen production catalyst is still a huge challenge. This paper reported a basic hydrothermal method for preparing molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanosheets supported on biomass‒carbon which is derived from discarded peanut shells (PS). MoS2 nanosheets can grow uniformly and vertically on PS and enhance the conductivity, the synergistic effects could promote the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of PS/MoS2 composites. It is found that the amount doped with MoS2 significant affect HER behaviors of catalysts. In particular, the PS/MoS2 1:2 shows admirable catalytic ability with a low overpotential of 154 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a small Tafel slope 71 mV·dec−1, and outstanding stability over 2000 cycles under acidic conditions. The results provide a low-cost countermeasure for the preparation of carbon-supported MoS2 catalysts, and has broad application prospects. The introduction of castoff derived biomass-carbon can significantly improve the conductivity of MoS2 nanosheets and the performance of electrocatalysts. [Display omitted] •Biomass-carbon supported MoS2 nanocomposites were prepared by hydrothermal method.•The electrochemical catalytic properties of PS/MoS2 nanocomposites were studied.•The influence of the amount of MoS2 load on the morphology and catalytic activity of PS/MoS2 catalysts were discussed.•A low-cost catalyst for hydrogen evolution was obtained.