Interface Engineering of Transition Metal-Based Heterostructure Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting to produce clean hydrogen plays a significant role in the development of the hydrogen economy. The rational design of highly efficient and inexpensive electrocatalysts is critical for improving water electrolysis efficiency. Herein, we report the fabrication of heterostructure monometallic, bimetallic, and trimetallic sulfides on Ni foam (NF) as porous self-supported electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via an energy-saving electrodeposition process. Molybdenum-cobalt-nickel sulfide electrode (MoCoNiS@NF) only requires a low overpotential of 114 mV to produce a current density of 10 mA cm-2 for HER, compared with nickel sulfides (NiS@NF, 142 mV) and cobalt-nickel sulfides (CoNiS@NF, 129 mV). The desirable HER performance of MoCoNiS@NF results from the synergistic effect of heterostructure interfaces of multi-metal sulfides, providing high intrinsic catalytic activity and a large amount of catalytic active sites. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and Tafel slope analysis proved the fast reaction kinetics of MoCoNiS@NF toward HER. Our present work provides valuable insights into the working mechanisms behind the HER catalytic process and new perspectives for the future design of cost-effective electrocatalysts for HER.