MoS2/NiS heterostructure grown on Nickel Foam as highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

Abstract It is great important to develop and explore a non-precious bifunctional electrocatalyst with high efficiency and good stability for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) and Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolyte. Herein, a three-dimensional (3D) needle-like MoS2/NiS heterostructure supported on Nickel Foam (NF) (MoS2/NiS/NF) is synthesized by a simple hydrothermal method for the first time, which can act as a good bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting. As expected, the optimal MoS2/NiS/NF exhibits excellent catalytic performance with a low overpotential of 87 and 216 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for HER and OER in 1 M KOH electrolyte, respectively, accompanied by good cycle stability. Furthermore, the MoS2/NiS/NF as bifunctional electrocatalyst in an electrolyzer shows high efficiency with a cell voltage of 1.5 V at 10 mA cm−2, as well as superior durability. The present work may open a new direction to design and develop a non-precious bifunctional electrocatalyst with excellent catalytic activity for water splitting in the future.