Synergistic effects of 1T-2H MoS2 and laser-reduced graphene Oxide-ZnO scaffold composite catalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

A composite catalyst, zinc-doped laser-reduced graphene oxide (LrGO), is synthesized with highly dispersed molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanolayers using laser exfoliation followed by a hydrothermal process. The resultant LrGO-ZnO/1T-2H MoS2 (GZM3) catalyst exhibits enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic performance and improved stability. It achieves small overpotentials of 94 and 191.5 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, under acidic and alkaline conditions, respectively. This superior catalytic activity is attributed to the high electrical conductivity and large electrochemical surface area of graphene, along with efficient charge transfer facilitated by Zn ions between LrGO-ZnO and 1T-2H MoS2.