  The search for highly efficient and low-cost catalysts based on earth
abundant elements is one of the main driving forces in organic and inorganic
chemistry. Current strategies for the heterogeneous catalyst design focus on
increasing the density of active regions and the optimization of Gibbs free
energy of chemical reaction via doping. In this work, we investigate the
chemical properties of moire metal for hydrogen evolution reaction. We show
that the local shift of metallic atoms introduces a variation in surface
hydrogen bonding strength and leads to the spatially dependent Gibbs free
energy for hydrogen absorption. Remarkably, the Gibbs free energy of AB stacked
NbS2 is shown to cover the thermoneutral volcano peak, exceeding the efficiency
of the current record platinum. The richness of local chemical environment in
moire structures provides a unique way to tune the reactivity for various
chemical reactions. Our study establishes a recipe for designing superior
catalysts from the simple twist or stacking of formerly inactive catalytic
metals, and proposes structural moire as a promising nanoengineering method to
tune surface properties for chemical adsorption.
