Activation of Ternary Transition Metal Chalcogenide Basal Planes through Chemical Strain for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Catalytically inactive basal planes pose challenges for the efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in two‐dimensional (2 D) transition metal chalcogenide (TMC) nanosheets. Herein, a new hybrid structure is reported in which zero‐dimensional TMC nanodots (NDs) are decorated on the basal planes of 2 D nanosheets of TMCs to enhance their catalytic activity towards the HER process. A novel process is developed to fabricate a hybrid Cu2MoS4 (2 D ternary transition metal chalcogenide Cu2MoS4 nanosheets)/MoSe2 (0 D binary transition metal chalcogenide MoSe2 ND) nanostructure by controlling the size of the MoSe2 NDs to enhance the HER activity. In acidic media, this optimal hybrid Cu2MoS4/MoSe2 nanostructure achieves excellent catalytic activity for HER, which exhibits a low overpotential of 166 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, which corresponds to a Tafel slope of 74.7 mV dec−1. In addition, the synthesized hybrid nanostructure shows excellent stability when under acidic medium for 16 h of continuous electrolysis. Therefore, it is suggested that our strategy may open a new path for the design of hybrid nanostructures by using ternary transition metal chalcogenides (TTMCs) with binary transition metal chalcogenides (BTMCs) for alternative non‐noble metal catalysts towards HER. Binary+ternary=improved catalyst: A novel nanohybrid structure has been developed to improve the electrochemical activity of ternary transition metal chalcogenides (TTMCs) through the deposition of binary transition metal chalcogenide (BTMC) nanodots (NDs) on the basal plane of TTMCs. The hydrogen evolution activities of the TTMCs are enhanced owing to the creation of catalytically active sites through interaction between the transition metals in BTMCs NDs and chalcogen atoms in TTMCs (see figure).