Defect-Laden MoSe2 Quantum Dots Made by Turbulent Shear Mixing as Enhanced Electrocatalysts

Chongyang Zhu; Yuan Huang; Feng Xu; Peng Gao; Binghui Ge; Jing Chen; Haibo Zeng; Eli Sutter; Peter Sutter; Litao Sun

doi:10.1002/smll.201700565

Defect-Laden MoSe₂ Quantum Dots Made by Turbulent Shear Mixing as Enhanced Electrocatalysts

Small. 2017 Jul;13(27). doi: 10.1002/smll.201700565. Epub 2017 May 24.

Authors

Chongyang Zhu¹, Yuan Huang², Feng Xu¹, Peng Gao³, Binghui Ge⁴, Jing Chen⁵, Haibo Zeng⁶, Eli Sutter⁷, Peter Sutter⁷, Litao Sun¹

Affiliations

¹ SEU-FEI Nano-Pico Center, Key Laboratory of MEMS of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
² Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA.
³ Electron Microscopy Laboratory, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
⁴ Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
⁵ School of Electronic Science & Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
⁶ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China.
⁷ Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA.

PMID: 28544617
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201700565

Abstract

A high density of edge sites and other defects can significantly improve the catalytic activity of layered 2D materials. Herein, this study demonstrates a novel top-down strategy to maximize catalytic edge sites of MoSe₂ by breaking up bulk MoSe₂ into quantum dots (QDs) via "turbulent shear mixing" (TSM). The ultrasmall size of the MoSe₂ QDs provides a high fraction of atoms in reactive edge sites, thus significantly improving the catalytic activities. The violent TSM further introduces abundant defects as additional active sites for electrocatalytic reactions. These edge-proliferated and defect-laden MoSe₂ QDs are found to be efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction, and useful as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells. The work provides a new paradigm for creating edge-proliferated and defect-rich QDs from bulk layered materials.

Keywords: MoSe2 quantum dots; dye-sensitized solar cells; electrocatalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; turbulent shear mixing.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't