Synergistic effects of 1T MoS2 and interface engineering on hollow NiCoP nanorods for enhanced hydrogen evolution activity

Metallic 1T-phase molybdenum disulfide (1T-MoS2) shows more excellent electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) than semiconducting 2H-phase MoS2 (2H-MoS2). Therefore, the facile controllable synthesis of hierarchical structure with rich 1T-MoS2 is desired for highly efficient electrocatalytic performance. In this work, a simple solvothermal method is proposed to fabricate hollow NiCoP/MoS2-V heterostructure with 63.2% 1T-MoS2, in which the abundant catalytic active sites are exposed, the mass transfer properties are improved, and the electronic states are optimized. Moreover, the low energy difference between 2H and 1T phases and near zero free energy of hydrogen adsorption (ΔGH*) result in fast kinetics and excellent catalytic performances. Specifically, the NiCoP/MoS2-V composite exhibits enhanced HER activity with a low overpotential of 74.6 mV at 10 mA cm–2 and superior stability in alkaline electrolytes. This efficient design opens up new vistas for developing high-activity electrocatalysts.