Ultrathin-layered MoS2 hollow nanospheres decorating Ni3S2 nanowires as high effective self-supporting electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

High-activity and cost-effective transition metal sulfides (TMSs) have attracted tremendous attention as promising catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, a significant challenge is the simultaneous construction of abundant electrochemical active sites and the fast electronic transmission path to boost a high-efficient HER. Herein, we demonstrate a facile one-step hydrothermal preparation of MoS2 hollow nanospheres decorating Ni3S2 nanowires supported on Ni foam (NF), without any other additional template, surfactant or annealing. In this three-dimensional (3D) heterostructure, the ultrathin-layered MoS2 hollow nanospheres contribute to the promotion of the total surface area and the electrochemical active sites. Meanwhile, the Ni3S2 nanowires are beneficial to the high electrical conductivity. Consequently, the optimized MoS2/Ni3S2/NF-200-24 electrocatalyst presents an extremely superior HER activity to that of individual MoS2/NF and Ni3S2/NF. The HER overpotentials are 85 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and 189 mV at 100 mA cm−2, which are also comparable with the state-of-the-art 20% Pt/C/NF electrode at both low and high current.