Facile synthesis of MoSe₂ embedded in La₂O₃ crystal for enhancing hydrogen evolution reaction

Figures & data

Figure 1. Schematic illustration of MoSe₂/La₂O₃ heterostructure fabrication.

Figure 2. (a) XRD patterns; (b) Raman spectra of pure MoSe₂, La₂O₃, and hybrid M-L2.

Figure 3. FESEM images of produced products at different magnifications: (a, b) pristine La₂O₃, (c, d) Pure MoSe₂, and (e, f) M-L2 nanohybrid.

Figure 4. (a) EDX spectrum of the as prepared M-L2 sample. (b) SEM mage of elemental mapping. (c–f) EDX elemental mapping of La, O, Mo, and Se, respectively. (g) TEM image and (h and i) HRTEM along with magnified view of lattice plane of as prepared M-L2 sample.

Figure 5. XPS results of pristine MoSe₂, La₂O₃, and an M-L2 nanocomposite sample. (a) Scan spectra for the three materials. High-resolution XPS spectra of (b) La 3d, (c) O 1s, (d) Mo 3d, and (e) Se 3d.

Figure 6. (a) LSV polarisation curves. (b) The corresponding Tafel plots obtained from polarisation curves for the bare carbon, MoSe₂, La₂O₃, M-L1, M-L2 and M-L3.

Table 1. A comparison of HER catalytic performance of MoSe₂ materials.

Materials	Supporting Electrode	Loading (mg cm^−2)	Electrolyte	Tafel slope (mV/dec)	Ref.
Porous MoSe2	GC	0.4	0.5M H2SO4	80	Lei, Xu, and Wu (2016)
MoSe2/CC-30	GC	0.15 µm (th)	0.5M H2SO4	76	Yundan Liu et al. (2016)
MoSe2/CC-180	GC	3.2 µm (th)	0.5M H2SO4	102
Porous MoSe2	SPCE	1.11	0.5M H2SO4	56	Tran, Poorahong, and Siaj 2017)
MoSe2/CoMoSe	GC	1.8 nm (th)	0.5M H2SO4	95.2	Chen et al. (2017)
Boron-2H MoSe2	GC	0.64	0.5M H2SO4	72.4	Z. Mao et al. (2020)
MoSe2/WS2 (MW22)	GC	0.28	0.5M H2SO4	150	Hwang and Shin (2021)
NiSe2/MoSe2 HTs	GC	0.57	1M KOH	82	Dai et al. (2022)
MoSe2/La2O3	SPC	0.2	0.5M H2SO4	66	This work

* Key: GC: glassy carbon; Th: thickness; SPCE: screen-printed carbon electrode.

Figure 7. (a) Electrochemical impedance spectra of the bare carbon, MoSe₂, La₂O₃, M-L1, M-L2 and M-L3. (b) Stability results for the M-L2 sample before and after 1000 CV cycles in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ under N₂ atmosphere_.

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