Bimetallic MOF-derived ZnSe/NiSe heterostructures toward enhanced hydrogen evolution reactions

Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is the foundation of the emerging hydrogen energy industry, which can be intrinsically boosted by powerful heterostructured catalysts. In this work, we demonstrate zinc selenide/nickel selenide heterojunction nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen-doped carbon framework (ZnSe/[email protected]) by a selenization process, which exhibit a remarkably catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution. Compared with pristine [email protected] (with a Tafel slope of 68 mV dec−1 and a ƞ10 of 270 mV), ZnSe/[email protected] displayed a much improved HER property with a Tafel slope of 45 mV dec−1 and a ƞ10 of 153 mV. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results indicate that the introduction of NiSe can not only facilitate the water dissociation process, but also enhance charge transfer efficiency in ZnSe/NiSe heterostructure. This work demonstrates considerable potential for transition metal selenide-based catalysts through optimization of their composition and structure.