One-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis of Mo-Doped Ni₃S₂ Nanorods for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

In recent years, the development of catalysts for the transition-metal sulfide hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has received extensive attention. However, the design of low-cost transition-metal sulfide-based catalysts remains a great challenge due to slow water dissociation kinetics and poor long-term stability of the catalysts during the alkaline HER. In this paper, we report the Mo-doped Ni 3 S 2 nanorods (Mo-Ni 3 S 2 NRs) materials prepared by a facile one-step solvothermal method. The doping of Mo accelerates the dissociation of water, increases the electron transport capacity of Ni 3 S 2, and improves the hydrogen adsorption capacity of Ni 3 S 2 . The introduction of NH 4 OH induces the growth of oriented nanorods of Ni 3 S 2 and exposes the high-index crystallographic surface of Ni 3 S 2 . The optimized Mo-Ni 3 S 2 NRs catalyst presents low overpotentials of 37.7 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm –2 in 1.0 M KOH, and outstanding durability of 24 h could be achieved for the HER.