Fe-doped NiCo2S4 catalyst derived from ZIF – 67 towards efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The development of economical, efficient and stable non-noble metal catalysts plays a key role in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. NiCo 2 S 4 has been proved to be an efficient non-noble catalyst, to further improve its electrocatalytic performance is a meaningful work. In this paper, the effects of Fe doping on electrochemical performance of NiCo 2 S 4 is investigated. The Fe-doped NiCo 2 S 4 catalyst is prepared by a facile solvothermal method with metal-organic-framework (MOF, ZIF-67) as template, and it exhibits an improved hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance with an overpotential of 181 mV at 10 mA cm −2 , a Tafel slope of 125 mV dec −1 compared with that of NiCo 2 S 4 (252 mV overpotential and 149 mV dec −1 Tafel slope). The combination of improved conductivity, mesopores architecture retained with the ZIF-67 template, which result the reduced internal resistance, enhanced charge transportation as well as large electrochemical double-layer capacitance. This work provides an effective and synergistic strategy for fabricating NiCo 2 S 4 -based catalysts toward electrochemical water splitting. • Fe-doped NiCo 2 S 4 catalyst was synthesized by using ZIF-67 as a template. • The conductivity of NiCo 2 S 4 is increased by Fe doping. • Mesopores architecture of the Fe-doped NiCo 2 S 4 is retained with the template. • The Fe-doped NiCo 2 S 4 catalyst presents an improved HER activity and stability.