Work

Batch-Prepared Carbon Foam Integrated with CVD Derived Photoactive MoS2 for Electrocatalysis

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is well-regarded as a viable alternative to Pt-based electrocatalysts, owing to its highly active edge sites, but its implementation is limited by poor electrical conductivity and low proportions of edge sites. In this work, as-prepared porous carbon foam (CF) substrates with integrated MoS2 were fabricated using a scalable, robust, and controllable batch-method process. The MoS2 integrated conductive CF composite (MoS2-CF) materials were additionally enhanced through post-process carbonization and sulfurization. Both molybdenum precursor powder sources used to fabricate the MoS2-CF composites, MoO3 and bulk MoS2 powders, exhibited well-exposed active edge sites with improved photo-response and electrocatalytic activity after post-processing. Most MoS2-CF electrodes operated at −10 mA cm−2 per geometric area with magnitude overpotentials (|η|) between 200 and 500 mV in 0.5 M H2SO4, and several electrodes reached |η| < 100 mV. The best performing composites, fabricated with MoO3 precursor powder and carbonized afterward, displayed a concentration averaged |η| of 134 ± 68 mV with a Tafel slope of 74 ± 15 mV dec−1 and photocurrent response of 96 ± 24 nA. Composites produced with MoO3 powder also displayed an average 40% lower magnitude overpotential and 75% increase in photo-response when compared to bulk MoS2 precursor electrodes. In addition to electrocatalytic and photo-response studies performed on the 28 as-prepared CF and post-processed MoS2-CF composites, the electrochemically active surface area of each electrode was estimated to determine active surface areas and roughness factors.

Source: Journal of The Electrochemical Society

DOI: 10.1149/1945-7111/adc0c3