In-situ  photocatalytic activity of molybdenum disulfide and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)

The video on the left acquired as part of a collaborative project with the research groups of Deep Jariwala, and Eric Stach at the University of Pennsylvania shows a powered electrode in water. The electrode is part of a water-splitting experiment resulting in gas bubble formation, which is characteristic of gas evolution during the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at a working electrode (WE).

The evolution of hydrogen gas in this experiment is enhanced by the photocatalytic action of a two-dimensional (2D) molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) at the active electrode site illuminated by a white light source in Hummingbird Scientific’s in-situ Optical Bulk Liquid Electrochemistry TEM holder. The bulk reference electrode (RE) in the holder allows for an accurate representation of the HER, matching electrochemical behavior seen in the bulk, beaker-scale geometry of a similar reaction.