Scalable synthesis of heterostructure molybdenum and nickel sulfides nanosheets for efficient hydrogen generation in alkaline electrolyte

Abstract Hydrogen generation by electrochemical water splitting with the renewable power source is one of the most promising pathways for green and sustainable society. The challenge is to explore a simple and cost-effective method to synthesize earth-abundant and noble-metal-free electrocatalysts with reliable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. Herein, we report a facile and scalable method to synthesize hybrid MoS 2 and nickel sulfides (NiS/NiS 2 /Ni 3 S 4 ) nanosheets (Mo-Ni-S NSs) with highly efficient HER activity in alkaline media. The hybrid phase and NSs allow large exposure of edge sites of MoS 2 and construct highly active hetero-interfaces between MoS 2 and NiS x and sufficient durability in alkaline solution. Mo-Ni-S NSs with optimal composition presents a low overpotential of 83 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm −2 in 1.0 M KOH, which is comparable to the performance of recent reported highly active MoS 2 based electrocatalysts. This work sheds light on the facile synthesis of multiple heterostructures as efficient electrocatalysts for scalable application in energy chemistry.