Amorphous MoS₂ Decorated Ni₃ S₂ with a Core-shell Structure of Urchin-Like on Nickel-Foam Efficient Hydrogen...

The large-scale commercialization of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) necessitates the development of cost-effective and highly efficient electrocatalysts. Although transition metal sulfides, such as MoS₂ and Ni₃ S₂ , hold great potential in the field of HER, their catalytic performance has been unsatisfactory due to incomplete exposure of active sites and poor electrical conductivity. In this work, via a simple hydrothermal strategy, amorphous MoS₂ nanoshells in the form of urchin-like MoS₂ -Ni₃ S₂ core-shell heterogeneous structure is realized and in situ loaded on nickel foam (A-MoS₂ -Ni₃ S₂ -NF). In particular, XPS analysis results show that the coupling of amorphous MoS₂ and Ni₃ S₂ makes the electrode surface exhibit electron-abundant property, which will have a positive impact on HER catalytic activity. In addition, the fully exposed active site of amorphous MoS₂ is another crucial factor contributing to its high catalytic performance of A-MoS₂ -Ni₃ S₂ -NF electrode. In particular, at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² , the overpotential of electrode is 95 mV (1.0 m KOH) and 145 mV (0.5 m H₂ SO₄ ). This work highlights the importance of amorphous MoS₂ and MoS₂ -Ni₃ S₂ of sea-urchin core-shell structure in optimizing HER performance, which provides an important reference for HER research.