Large-scale synthesis of nitrogen doped MoS2 quantum dots for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

N doped MoS2 quantum dots (QDs) are fabricated on large scale using a facile sintering/etching/exfoliation process we first proposed. Compared to pure MoS2 and N-doped MoS2 nanosheets, N-MoS2 QDs exhibit high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with small onset overpotential of 82 mV, overpotential of 165 mV at 10 mA/cm2, a Tafel slope of 51.2 mV/dec and remarkable stability. The enhanced catalytic activity could be ascribed to the combination of increasing the active sites by reducing the size of MoS2 and improving the conductivity of MoS2 basal plane by chemical doping effect. This work paves a simplistic route for enhancing the HER activity of layered transition metal dichalcogenide based catalysts.