Regulated growth of quasi-amorphous MoS thin-film hydrogen evolution catalysts by pulsed laser deposition of Mo in reactive H2S gas

Abstract We report the preparation of MoS x thin films with reactive pulsed laser deposition (RPLD), an original technique that allows us to investigate the correlation between key MoS x properties, such as the composition, morphology, and local structure, and the catalytic performance in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The use of two geometries of normal angle (NA) and sliding angle (SA) for the deposition by laser plume from a Mo target on a glassy carbon substrate made it possible to regulate the characteristics of MoS x films (1.5 ≤ x ≤ 10) by varying the H 2 S pressure and thus to circumvent the limitations inherent in traditional pulsed laser deposition. Amorphous MoS x , quasi-crystalline layered MoS 2 , disordered as well as rather perfect Mo 3 –S clusters, and sulfur clusters were formed. The films containing locally ordered clusters with a higher content of bridging S 2 2 − and apical S 2 − ligands could be prepared by SA RPLD. This film was demonstrated to be the most efficient electrocatalyst, possessing a lower overpotential of − 130 mV at a current density of − 1 mA/cm 2 , a Tafel slope of 44 mV/dec, and a quite high exchange current density of ~ 1.2 μA/cm 2 . The preparation of a low-resistance MoS x underlayer by NA RPLD made it possible to increase the catalytic performance of a bilayer coating by 10%.