Facile synthesis of hierarchical Nb-Doped Mo–Ni–S nanospheres as efficient electrocatalyst toward hydrogen generation in alkaline media

Exploring highly-efficient and inexpensive electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline electrolyte act as pivotal role on boosting the development of hydrogen energy. Doping strategy has been regarded as an effective approach to accelerate electrocatalytic kinetics. Herein, transition metal doping method is applied to develop hierarchical molybdenum-nickel bimetallic sulfide nanospheres for HER. The unique spherical structure and synergistic effects between different elements are favorable for improving the electrocatalytic performance by exposing abundant active sites and electronic interactions. Therefore, the synthesized Nb–Mo–Ni–S (Nb-MNS) exhibits outstanding HER performance with overpotentials of 49 mV and 135 mV to deliver 10 mA cm −2 and 100 mA cm −2 , respectively. Significantly, Nb-MNS displays superior stability of 48 h with the current densities changed from 40 mA cm −2 to 120 mA cm −2 . This work provides a promising avenue to design transition metal sulfides for energy conversion reactions. The synthesized Nb-MoNiS (Nb-MNS) exhibits outstanding HER performance with overpotential 49 mV and 135 mV to deliver 10 mA cm-2 and 100 mA cm-2, respectively. • One-step synthesis strategy is developed to prepare advanced molybdenum-nickel bimetallic sulfides on NF. • Nb doping is an efficient avenue to improve the electrocatalytic performance of the prepared catalyst. • The synthesized Nb-MNS exhibits outstanding HER performance.