Facile synthesis of mesoporous WS2 for water oxidation

Abstract Mesoporous transition metal disulfide WS2 are facilely grown on the Ni foam substrate with 3D nanoflowers morphology and large surface area. The as-obtained WS2/Ni exhibit high performances for water oxidation in 1.0 M NaOH solution, which are much superior to those of the state-of-the-art RuO2/Ni and previously reported oxygen evolution catalysts. The WS2/Ni electrocatalyst manifests the high performance, displaying a very low overpotential of 0.335 V at 20.0 mA cm−2 and much improved durability. The facile and controllable synthesis is promising for the rational design of electrocatalyst for the renewable energy conversion.