Engineering the novel MoSe₂-Mo₂C hybrid nanoarray electrodes for energy storage and water splitting applications

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are highly fascinating, efficacious, and low-cost active electrodes for energy storage and water splitting. Molybdenum selenide (MoSe₂) is a fascinating 2D TMD system because of its plentiful active selenium edge sites, however, its reported outputs are deficient due to their inactive facet edges and poor conductivity. Herein, we tackled the key issues by engineering hybrid composites using a molybdenum carbide (Mo₂C) inserted MoSe₂ matrix, in the first time. For this approach, a simple one-step chemical reaction method was employed to synthesize the highly active MoSe₂-Mo₂C hybrid nanoarrays for energy storage and electrocatalytic water splitting applications. Microscopic analyses clearly showed the formation of Mo₂C embedded MoSe₂ hybrid nanoarray structured morphology composed of nanosized spherical grains with plenty of active sites. Improved surface area, modified morphology, highly conductive nature, and abundant active sites were obviously confirmed for the MoSe₂-Mo₂C hybrid. Interestingly, MoSe₂-Mo₂C hybrid nanoarrays exposed excellent capacitance with superior rate capability behavior and outstanding hydrogen evolution activity with their low overpotential, small Tafel slope and high current density.