Designing of Ag2S Nanowires from a Single-Source Molecular Precursor [(PPh3)2AgS2P(OiPr)2] for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

In the present study, we illustrated a facile fabrication of large scale ultra-thin silver sulfide (Ag2S) nanowires (NWs) and its promising application in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Ultra-thin and highly uniform Ag2S nanostructures were fabricated from single-source precursor [(PPh3)2AgS2P(OiPr)2], and characterized by utilizing various structural and imaging techniques. Large-scale monodispersed ultra-thin single-crystalline Ag2S nanowires were generated via n-decylboronic acid induced thermal decomposition of the single precursor in the presence of octadecyl amine and oleyl amine mixture under anaerobic conditions. We explored the catalytic activities of Ag2S nanowires for HER which showed an overpotential of−88 mV at 10 mA/cm2 and the corresponding Tafel slope was found to be 52 mV dec−1. © 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH