Mo-Doped Ni_xFeS Nanosheets on Nickel Foam for Applications in Water Splitting

Hydrogen production through electrolysis of water is widely recognized as a strategic technological pathway for enabling energy system transformation. However, the efficiency of producing hydrogen through this method is severely limited by the high overpotential arising from sluggish kinetics in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Therefore, the advancement of efficient non-noble metal bifunctional catalyst is significant. Here, a simple strategy has been used to successfully create a Mo–Ni x FeS/ V NF bifunctional electrocatalyst, and the hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution performances of the target catalyst in 1 M KOH electrolyte were studied. The strategy ingeniously integrates atomic doping techniques, the solvent-induced cationic vacancy formation mechanism, and strategies for engineering heterogeneous interfaces. Due to its unique nanoscale structural features, this catalyst has these features that synergistically enhance its catalytic performance, thus endowing it with good catalytic activity, showing low overpotentials of 49 mV for HER and 175 mV for OER at 10 mA cm –2, along with a low water splitting voltage of 1.45 V. Furthermore, it shows remarkable stability. The excellent catalytic activity primarily stems from 3 factors: first, the modification of electronic structures through atomic doping; second, the extra active sites introduced by cationic vacancies; and third, the existence of a complete heterostructure at the nanoscale, and the occurrence of charge redistribution at the active centers of the heterophase interfaces.