An efficient self-standing hydrogen evolution electrode was prepared by in situ growth of stacked ultrathin TiO2/MoS2 heterolayers on carbon paper (CP@TiO2@MoS2). Owing to the high overall conductivity, large electrochemical surface area and abundant active sites, this novel electrode exhibits an excellent performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Remarkably, the composite electrode shows a low Tafel slope of 41.7 mV/dec, and an ultrahigh cathodic current density of 550 mA/cm2 at a very low overpotential of 0.25 V. This work presents a new universal strategy for the construction of effective, durable, scalable, and inexpensive electrodes that can be extended to other electrocatalytic systems.
Keywords: electrochemistry; hydrogen; molybdenum disulfide; self-standing; titanium dioxide.