Oxygen-deficient MoOx/Ni3S2 heterostructure grown on nickel foam as efficient and durable self-supported electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction
Zihuan Yu, Haiqing Yan, Chaonan Wang, Zheng Wang, Huiqin Yao, Rong Liu, Cheng Li, Shulan Ma
Oxygen-deficient MoOx/Ni3S2 heterostructure grown on nickel foam as efficient and durable self-supported electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction
High-performance and ultra-durable electrocatalysts are vital for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) during water splitting. Herein, by one-pot solvothermal method, MoOx/Ni3S2 spheres comprising Ni3S2 nanoparticles inside and oxygen-deficient amorphous MoOx outside in situ grow on Ni foam (NF), to assembly the heterostructure composites of MoOx/Ni3S2/NF. By adjusting volume ratio of the solvents of ethanol to water, the optimized MoOx/Ni3S2/NF-11 exhibits the best HER performance, requiring an extremely low overpotential of 76 mV to achieve the current density of 10 mA∙cm‒2 (η10 = 76 mV) and an ultra-small Tafel slope of 46 mV∙dec‒1 in 0.5 mol∙L‒1 H2SO4. More importantly, the catalyst shows prominent high catalytic stability for HER (> 100 h). The acid-resistant MoOx wraps the inside Ni3S2/NF to ensure the high stability of the catalyst under acidic conditions. Density functional theory calculations confirm that the existing oxygen vacancy and MoOx/Ni3S2 heterostructure are both beneficial to the reduced Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption (|∆GH*|) over Mo sites, which act as main active sites. The heterostructure effectively decreases the formation energy of O vacancy, leading to surface reconstruction of the catalyst, further improving HER performance. The MoOx/Ni3S2/NF is promising to serve as a highly effective and durable electrocatalyst toward HER.
molybdenum oxides / oxygen vacancies / heterostructure / electrocatalysts / hydrogen evolution reaction
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