ZIF – 67 derived hybrid CuCo2S4@MoS2 catalyst for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing hybrid metal sulfide electrocatalyst with excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalytic performance and stability is vital to its commercial applications. Herein, hybrid CuCo2S4@ MoS2 catalysts were designed with CuCo2S4 synthesized by using ZIF-67 as a template and externally decorated with MoS2. The hybrid catalysts (denoted as C@M-0.5, C@M ​− ​1, C@M ​− ​2) show improved catalytic activity than those of MoS2 and CuCo2S4 due to large surface area and the interface between nanoflower-like MoS2 and three-dimensional interconnected lamellar stacked CuCo2S4, which boost charge transport capability and improve the HER kinetic process. The influences of different ratio of CuCo2S4 to MoS2 on the electrocatalytic activity are investigated in detail. Specifically, C@M ​− ​1 exhibit the best HER performance with an overpotential of 143 ​mV@ 10 ​mA/cm2, a Tafel slope of 45.2 mV/dec and satisfactory long-time stability. This work rationally designs hybrid CuCo2S4@MoS2 catalyst to preserve the merits of using the ZIF-67 as a template and make use of the synergistic coupling effects between CuCo2S4 and MoS2, which can be extended to synthesize other catalysts in different energy conversion fields.