Three-dimensional flower-like NiS2/MoS2 assembly of randomly oriented nanoplate for enhanced hydrogen evolution reaction

The continually worsening energy crisis has stimulated research into energy conversion technology to produce pure hydrogen, H2. Transition metal-based compounds have attracted great attention as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) as alternatives to commercial, high-cost, and scarce noble metal-based catalysts. In this work, a 3D flower-like NiS2/MoS2 is synthesized with the advantages of a three-dimensional (3D) morphology and the compositing of different metal compounds, thus leading to enhanced electrocatalytic performance. The structure of 3D flower-like NiS2/MoS2 augments the specific surface areas resulting from nanoplate assemblies as well as the heterointerface ascribed to two different phases of NiS2 and MoS2. These characteristics are confirmed by electrocatalytic measurements of the lower overpotential of 165 mV at 10 mA/cm2 with high charge transfer ability, thus demonstrating the structure's potential for advanced electrocatalysts for the HER.