Electrocatalysts based on MoS₂ and WS₂ for hydrogen evolution reaction: An overview

Recently, hydrogen energy has been significantly investigated by numerous technologies. To date, noble platinum group metals have often been employed to fabricate working electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, the demand of highly active HER catalysts based on effective and lower-cost materials is becoming more and more critical. Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials could be one of the most suitable materials for these requirements because they possess numerous unique mechanical, electronic, and chemical characteristics that are greatly beneficial for HER processes. Among many TMD materials, tungsten disulfide (WS₂) and molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) are the most well-known TMD materials which have been intensively studied for different applications, including HER, batteries, and supercapacitors. In this review, we tried to cover the HER mechanism of catalysts and their parameters. Besides that, the structures, properties, preparation, and HER performance of catalyst materials based on WS₂ and MoS₂ are comprehensively discussed. After that, the challenges and future trends of catalysts based on WS₂ and MoS₂ for HER are also considered.