2H-MoS
2 is one of the most promising noble metal-free electrocatalysts in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). With regard to its HER mechanism, the widely accepted view so far is that its marginal sites have high HER activity, while its basal plane is inert during HER process. However, Zhai et al. found that this conclusion was incorrect and verified it using ATR-SEIRAS and XAFS. The three-electrode ATR-SEIRAS cell used for in-situ measurement is shown in
Figure 1a. As shown in
Figure 1b, 0.5M H
2SO
4 was added to the three-electrode ATR-SEIRAS cell as the electrolyte, and the ATR-SEIRAS spectra of MoS
2 at -0.1 V, -0.2 V, -0.3 V and after reaction were measured. It can be found that a peak of 2523 cm
-1 occurs at -0.2 V and -0.3 V and this peak is not from the edge site, but a continuous peak of 2600 cm
-1 is from the edge site. The formation of S-H bond was observed at -0.2 V, indicating that 2523 cm
-1 in the experiment is the stretching vibration of S-H bond (v(S-H)). Then, as shown in
Figure 1d, the stretching vibration of S–H bond is calculated and compared with the experimental value. There are two adsorption modes of S-H bond in 2H-MoS
2, namely vertical adsorption and inclined adsorption. However, the calculated values of v(S-H) of the two models differ greatly from the experimental results. Similarly, the S-H bond in 1T′-MoS
2 also has two adsorption modes, which are respectively in the higher position and the lower position and are denoted as S-H and S-L. It is found that v(S-H) on S-L has a good agreement with the experimental value. In addition, as shown in
Figure 1c,e, when the electrolyte H
2SO
4 in the experiment was replaced by D
2SO
4, that is, when the proton source in HER process was replaced by D, the conclusion remained unchanged, and v(S-H) on S-L also had a good agreement with the experimental value. The experimental results show that there is a phase transition from 2H to 1T′ during the reaction. As shown in
Figure 1f–k, in order to further verify that the 2H to 1T′ phase transition is not permanent but transient, the EXAFS diagram during the reaction process and the wavelet transform analysis of 2H-MoS
2 are measured. As shown in
Figure 1f, under OCP (open-circuit potential), the length of Mo-S bond and Mo-Mo bond is consistent with the those of 2H-MoS
2, while the length of Mo-Mo bond is consistent with 1T′-MoS
2 at -0.2 V and -0.3 V. It is found that the characteristics of 1T′-MoS
2 disappear after the end of the reaction, indicating that this phase transition is transient. As shown in
Figure 1g–k, the WT data further indicates that this phase transition is transient, no 1T’-MoS
2 feature appears at OCP and -0.1 V, and 1T’ -MoS
2 feature appears at -0.2 V, and this feature is more obvious at -0.3 V, and when the reaction ends, the feature of 1T’-MoS
2 disappears. In conclusion, Zhai et al. verified that part of the base phase of 2H-MoS
2 would change into 1T’-MoS
2 during HER process, showing high activity, and 1T’-MoS
2 would change into 2H-MoS
2 after the reaction.