Development of Molybdenum Disulfide MoS2 nanostructures and thin films for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction HER and Supercapacitor applications

Abstract

The demand for energy is steadily escalating and the raw materials for newlinefossil fuels are on the decline. Developing clean, eco-friendly, and newlineeconomically viable energy sources are vitally important for satisfying the newlineenergy craving of the world s growing population. Hydrogen is considered newlineas one of the sustainable sources of energy. When hydrogen combines with newlineoxygen in a fuel cell, electric charge is produced. The by-products of this newlineelectrochemical reaction are water and heat, and no greenhouse gases are newlinereleased in this case. Hydrogen produced usually from fossil fuels, is newlineaccompanied with the emission of carbon dioxide, which eventually leads newlineto global warming. Sustainable methods to obtain hydrogen are therefore newlineimportant. Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is one of the approaches to newlineproduce hydrogen from water splitting. HER is a thermodynamically uphill newlineprocess, and a proper catalyst is essential to reduce the activation energy newlinebarrier. Conventional HER catalysts like platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd) and newlinegold (Au) being rare and expensive, have limited practical utility. Thus an newlineeconomically viable and abundant HER catalyst is essential. This thesis systematically evaluates the crystal structure, growth direction newlineand morphology at various growth parameters with the aim of proposing newlinesuitable strategies to improve the electrochemical (both HER and newlinesupercapacitor) properties of MoS2 through optimized synthesis newlinetechniques. newline