Oxygen-deficient MoOx/Ni3S2 heterostructure grown on nickel foam as efficient and durable self-supported electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

High-performance and ultra-durable electrocatalysts are vital for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) during water splitting. Herein, by one-pot solvothermal method, MoO_x/Ni₃S₂ spheres comprising Ni₃S₂ nanoparticles inside and oxygen-deficient amorphous MoO_x outside in situ grow on Ni foam (NF), to assembly the heterostructure composites of MoO_x/Ni₃S₂/NF. By adjusting volume ratio of the solvents of ethanol to water, the optimized MoO_x/Ni₃S₂/NF-11 exhibits the best HER performance, requiring an extremely low overpotential of 76 mV to achieve the current density of 10 mA∙cm^‒2 (η₁₀ = 76 mV) and an ultra-small Tafel slope of 46 mV∙dec^‒1 in 0.5 mol∙L^‒1 H₂SO₄. More importantly, the catalyst shows prominent high catalytic stability for HER (> 100 h). The acid-resistant MoO_x wraps the inside Ni₃S₂/NF to ensure the high stability of the catalyst under acidic conditions. Density functional theory calculations confirm that the existing oxygen vacancy and MoO_x/Ni₃S₂ heterostructure are both beneficial to the reduced Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption (|∆G_H*|) over Mo sites, which act as main active sites. The heterostructure effectively decreases the formation energy of O vacancy, leading to surface reconstruction of the catalyst, further improving HER performance. The MoO_x/Ni₃S₂/NF is promising to serve as a highly effective and durable electrocatalyst toward HER.