Engineering edge-rich, highly dispersed, and stable MoS₂ sites for the catalytic splitting of H₂S for H₂ production

by Pedro Castaño, Hend Mohamed, Vijay Velisoju, Mohammed Obaid, Rafia Ahmed, Yuma Hirayama, Mohamed Hassine, Gontzal Lezcano, Ildar Mukhambetov, Zainab Alaithan, Muhammad Shafarifky, Ali Almofleh, Polina Tolstova, Omar El Tall, Takato Mitsudome, Huabin Zhang, Luigi Cavallo, Noreddine Ghaffour, Hassan Aljama
Year: 2026 DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8597696/v1

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Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) decomposition offers a carbon-neutral route for hydrogen production, but it remains limited by sluggish kinetics and catalyst deactivation. Here, we report an electrospinning–sulfidation strategy to engineer a confined molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) catalyst with stable edge-rich active sites. During electrospinning, confined Mo–S4²⁻ complexes are dispersed within the nanofibers, which then nucleate into MoS2 during calcination. The sulfidation stage induces exfoliation, forming highly dispersed MoS₂ domains that interact strongly with the carbon nanofibers. The prepared catalyst has a high surface area (~ 180 m2 g⁻1), abundant sulfur-vacancy edge sites, and strong support interactions, stabilized by coordinated Mo atoms. In-situ spectroscopy and ab-initio calculations reveal that these interfaces facilitate H2S dissociation, leading to a 3-fold higher intrinsic rate and improved long-term stability (> 50 h at 973 K) compared to bulk analogues. This work establishes design principles for fabricating grafted, stable, and highly dispersed sulfide catalysts.