Sulfur ion-exchange strategy to obtain BiS nanostructures from BiO for better water splitting performance.

A two-step simple and efficient ion-exchange chemical strategy is proposed to obtain nanostructured BiS electrodes of different surface morphologies from the BiO. In the first step, nanoplates of the BiO are obtained on nickel-foam using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method at room-temperature (25 °C). In the second phase, as-obtained nanoplates of the BiO are transferred to the BiS using four autoclaves containing different sulfur precursor solutions at 120 °C for 8 h for phase change, structural conversion and surface morphological modification (, walnuts, network-type, nanowires, and nanoflowers).