Novel heterostructure Cu2S/Ni3S2 coral-like nanoarrays on Ni foam to enhance hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media

• Published in: RSC advances 2021-12, Vol.11 (62), p.39493-39502
• Main Authors: Peng, Yizhi, He, Hanwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Catalysis; Charge transfer; Chemistry; Copper sulfides; Crystal defects; Electrocatalysts; Heterostructures; Hydrogen evolution reactions; Metal foams; Nickel sulfide; Noble metals; Water splitting
• ISSN: 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d1ra07514d

Exploring efficient alternatives to precious noble metal catalysts is a challenge. Here, a new type of non-noble metal Cu2S/Ni3S2 heterostructure nanosheet array is fabricated on 3D Ni foam. This electrocatalyst has excellent activity and durability to Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) under alkaline conditions. The synergistic catalysis produced by the {210} and (034) crystal planes and the increase in charge transfer and the number of active sites caused by lattice defects greatly improve the electrocatalytic activity of Ni3S2. In the HER process, the Cu2S/Ni3S2 interface increases the formation of S–H bonds, and Cu2S promotes the transformation during the HER process into S-doped CuO, optimizing the adsorption capacity of S-doped sites for H. Among electrocatalysts made with different feed ratios, Cu2S/Ni3S2/NF-3, for HER, only needs an overpotential of 50 mV to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm−2. This work provides a promising non-noble metal electrocatalyst for water splitting under alkaline conditions.