Abstract
Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have been considered as one of the most promising electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Many studies have demonstrated the feasibility of significant HER performance improvement of TMDs by constructing composite materials with Ni-based compounds. In this work, we prepared Ni3Se4@MoSe2 composites as electrocatalysts for the HER by growing in situ MoSe2 on the surface of Ni3Se4 nanosheets. Electrochemical measurements revealed that Ni3Se4@MoSe2 nanohybrids are highly active and durable during the HER process, which exhibits a low onset overpotential (145 mV) and Tafel slope (65 mV/dec), resulting in enhanced HER performance compared to pristine MoSe2 nanosheets. The enhanced HER catalytic activity is ascribed to the high surface area of Ni3Se4 nanosheets, which can both efficiently prevent the agglomeration issue of MoSe2 nanosheets and create more catalytic edge sites, hence accelerate electron transfer between MoSe2 and the working electrode in the HER. This approach provides an effective pathway for catalytic enhancement of MoSe2 electrocatalysts and can be applied for other TMD electrocatalysts.
Highlights
Energy-saving and environmental protection are of great importance to develop a sustainable society in the 21st century
We presented a Ni3 Se4 /MoSe2 composites catalyst fabricated by a facial two-step synthesis method for the first time
The Ni3 Se4 nanosheets served as templates to support MoSe2 and were expected to prevent MoSe2 from aggregation and improve its conductivity
Summary
Energy-saving and environmental protection are of great importance to develop a sustainable society in the 21st century. Some studies have reported that Ni-based materials, such as NiSe nanofiber [32,33,34], Ni–Mo alloy [35,36,37], and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) integrated with Ni components [5,37,38], exhibited great catalytic activity and long-term stability for water splitting. Inspired by this viewpoint, we consciously chose one of the selenides of nickel as a candidate for structuring Ni-based components/MoSe2 hybrid composites for hydrogen production.
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