Superhydrophilicity and superaerophobicity Ni/Ni₃S₄/1T-MoS₂ for hydrazine-assisted seawater splitting

The overall hydrazine splitting (OHzS) is a promising strategy to achieve the efficient hydrogen production in seawater through replacing the slow kinetic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and toxic chlorine evolution reaction (ClOR) by hydrazine oxidation (HzOR). We report an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst of Ni/Ni₃S₄/1T-MoS₂ on carbon cloth (Ni/Ni₃S₄/1T-MoS₂/CC), which was formed from large layer spacing MoS₂ and Ni₃S₄ with metal-Ni, and was applied as for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and HzOR. The MoS₂ had expanded interlayer spacing and showed 1T phase, with significantly improved conductivity and hydrophilicity, which promotes transfer process of reactants. Furthermore, the introduction of Ni/Ni₃S₄ on the 1T-MoS₂ base surface leaded to superhydrophilic and superaerophobic properties, which makes it more conducive to the adsorption of H. The improvement of electrical conductivity induced the excellent HER and HzOR electrocatalytic properties of Ni/Ni₃S₄/1T-MoS₂/CC, which showed an ultralow overpotential of 24 mV and working potential of 0 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2, respectively. Inspiringly, Ni/Ni₃S₄/1T-MoS₂/CC also showed excellent performance in hydrazine-assisted alkaline seawater electrolysis, as well as solar panel powered electrolysis of seawater OHzS, therefore, exhibiting great potential for practical applications.