A novel hierarchical MoS2-ZnO-Ni electrocatalyst prepared by electrodeposition coupling with dealloying for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Non-noble metal electrocatalysts with great efficiency have been extensively explored for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline solutions. Herein we demonstrate that the hierarchical MoS2-ZnO-Ni supported on nickel substrates is a highly active electrocatalyst for HER, which is synthesized through a facile and efficient two-step process: (i) the electrodeposition of composite on nickel substrate, (ii) the dealloying of ZnO from the hybrid. This catalyst exhibits an overpotential of 129mV at 10mAcm−2 and a Tafel slope of 78mVdec−1. Additionally, benefiting from its excellent durability it demonstrates only a decay of 20mV under a high constant current density of 130mAcm−2 for 24h. Therefore, the electrodeposition and subsequent dealloying strategy presented in this paper provides a novel and facile method to synthesize efficient catalysts for HER.