Se doped nickel-molybdenum bimetal sulfide with enhanced electrochemical activity for hydrogen evolution reaction

In this work, we synthesized Se doped MoS2@Ni3S2 with nanosheets coated nanorods structure supported on Ni foam (MoNiSeS). Firstly, MoS2@Ni3S2 (MoNiS) nanorods was synthesized by hydrothermal method. After selenization treatment, MoSe2 successfully formed on the edge of MoS2 nanosheets and particle Ni3S2 transformed into NiSe, in which MoSe2 and NiSe acted as new phase in MoNiSeS. The obtained MoNiSeS only needs a low overpotential of 68 mV to reach the current density of 10 mA cm−2, and has a low Tafel plots of 72.77 mV dec−1 and good electrochemical durability, whose electrochemical activity is much better than that of MoNiS and NiSeS, implying the introduction of Mo and Se is beneficial to improve the electrocatalytic performance of NiS for HER. In addition, the proper amount of Mo source, which has an effect on the morphology of product, has also been investigated. For MoNiSeS, the typical nanosheets coated nanarods expose more active sites and the synergic effects is good to the improvement of the catalytic activity. Meanwhile, WNiSeS has also been prepared using the same method and the corresponding results show that the electrochemical activity of WNiSeS is much better than that of NiSeS, proving the universality of this strategy.