The tuning catalytic functionality of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) with multi-dimensional defects, such as interfaces (2D), edges (1D), and atomic vacancies (0D), is currently considered a promising strategy for energy applications. The pristine edges and plasma-treated basal planes of various TMDs have been extensively studied for practical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Here, we demonstrate active HER on the plasma-treated edges of semimetallic layered tungsten ditellurides (WTe₂) using a microcell device. Atomic defects, substitutions, and new chemical bonds were locally induced on the basal plane and the edges of WTe₂ by mild plasma treatment, leading to catalytically activated WTe₂ for HER. The plasma treated WTe₂ was characterized by Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The local HER at the plasma-treated edges in the microcell device exhibited active electrocatalytic activity with an improved overpotential (325 mV at 10 mA/cm²) and Tafel slope (96 mV/dec), compared with pristine WTe₂ (overpotential of 538 mV at 10 mA/cm² and Tafel slope of 145 mV/dec). Our study proposes a novel strategy to tune the catalytic functionality with multi-dimensional defects for practical catalytic applications.

中文翻译：

---

WTe2 等离子体处理边缘上的活性氢析出

具有多维缺陷（例如界面（2D）、边缘（1D）和原子空位（0D））的过渡金属二硫属化物（TMD）的调节催化功能目前被认为是一种很有前景的能源应用策略。各种 TMD 的原始边缘和等离子体处理的基面已被广泛研究用于实际的析氢反应 (HER)。在这里，我们使用微电池装置在半金属层状二碲化钨 (WTe ₂ )的等离子体处理边缘上展示了活性 HER 。通过温和的等离子体处理，在WTe ₂的基面和边缘局部诱导原子缺陷、取代和新的化学键，导致用于HER的催化活化的WTe ₂。等离子处理的 WTe ₂通过拉曼光谱和 X 射线光电子发射光谱对其进行表征。与原始 WTe ₂相比，微电池装置中等离子体处理边缘的局部 HER 表现出活跃的电催化活性，具有改进的过电位（10 mA/cm ²时为 325 mV ）和 Tafel 斜率（96 mV/dec）（过电位为 538 10 mA/cm ^{2 时}的 mV 和 145 mV/dec 的 Tafel 斜率）。我们的研究提出了一种新的策略来调整具有多维缺陷的催化功能，以用于实际催化应用。