Cobalt doping VS2 on nickel foam as a high efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

The development of non-precious metal catalysts with abundant reserves, low prices and good performance for HER is desired. In this work, rodlike Co doping VS2 arrays on nickel foam (NF) (Co-VS2/NF) were fabricated by a simple one-step solvothermal method. Structure characterization indicated that Co doping reduced the size of rodlike Co-VS2 and meanwhile can modulate its electronic structure, which is beneficial for the enhancement of HER performance. The optimal Co-VS2/NF-2 reveals a low overpotential of 164.5 mV at −10 mA cm−2, small Tafel slope of 52.2 mV dec−1 and excellent long-term stability after 2000 cycles in 1 M KOH.