MOF-derived bimetallic NiMo-based sulfide electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media

Hydrogen energy is regarded as one of the candidates for renewable and green energy because of its high energy density and zero pollution. Two dimensional MXene-based heterostructures combine advantages and synergistic properties of the constituents, attracting great interest as a kind of low-cost hydrogen evolution catalyst. Herein, we present an in-situ sulfidation method to form a MoS2/Mo2TiC2Tx nanohybrid so as to circumvent adventitious oxidation in Mo2TiC2Tx MXenes. On this basis, MoNiS/Mo2TiC2Tx electrocatalyst is synthesized by vulcanizing the precursor MOF self-assembled with MoS2/Mo2TiC2Tx. Benefiting from the synergistic coupling of Mo2TiC2Tx MXene, Ni2S and MoS2, the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) test on MoNiS/Mo2TiC2Tx catalyst in 1 M KOH solution shows a significant HER activity with a low overpotential (153 mV) to produce a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and small Tafel slope (92 mV·dec−1). In addition, the catalyst is highly stable for at least 12 h with no drastically reduced activity. This design has important guiding significance for the preparation of hydrogen evolution materials by constructing the strategy of two-dimensional MXene and transition metal sulfide heterojunction.