Iron-doped VSe2 nanosheets for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction
Chaolun Wang, Xing Wu, Xuan Zhang, Gang Mu, Panlin Li, Chen Luo, Hejun Xu, Zengfeng Di
Abstract
Alloying is critical for regulating the electron states of layered two-dimensional (2D) materials, which has a significant influence on the physical and chemical properties of 2D materials, such as electrochemical catalysis, magnetism, and the bandgap of semiconductors. Here, we report the alloy of Fe-doped VSe2 with good homogeneity at the atomic level by using a one-step synthesis method. Fe-doped VSe2 presents enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance. It is found that Fe-doped VSe2 shows improved catalytic activity compared to the virgin VSe2, including a lower overpotential and a smaller Tafel slope. The enhanced HER performance indicates a lower Gibbs free energy of the HER process, resulting from the doping-induced regulation of the electron states. Our work presents a facile method to prepare transition metal-doped 2D materials and offers a general way to regulate the catalytic properties of 2D materials for energy conversion applications.