Superhydrophilic/superaerophobic amorphous NiS/NiMoS electrocatalyst for enhanced hydrogen evolution.

It is important to develop electrocatalysts that are cheap and have high activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, NiS/NiMoS with amorphous phase and unique candied-haws shaped nanoarray structure was successfully grown on nickel foam (NiS/NiMoS/NF) as efficient HER catalyst. Combining NiS with NiMoS resulted in the extension of the heterointerfaces between the materials, which facilitated the HER process in alkaline medium.

Tiny NiS boosting MoS hydrogen evolution in alkali by enlarging coupling boundaries and stimulating basal plane.

The relatively slow reaction kinetics of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by water electrolysis in alkali hinder its large-scale industrial production. To improve the HER activity in alkaline media, a novel NiS/MoS/CC catalytic electrode was synthesized by a simple two-step hydrothermal method in this work. The modification of MoS by NiS could facilitate the adsorption and dissociation of water, thus accelerating the alkaline HER kinetics.