Heterostructural NiFe-LDH@Ni3S2 nanosheet arrays as an efficient electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

Designing highly efficient bifunctional water splitting electrocatalyst is essential to ease the forthcoming energy crisis and the increasingly severe environmental problems. In this paper, NiFe-LDH@Ni 3 S 2 arrays on nickel foam (NF) are prepared via a facile two-step hydrothermal approach. The catalyst with a special structure of on-chip epitaxial growth of sheet grown vertically on nickel foam not only provides enhanced interface connections and massive exposed active sites but also accelerates the transmission of electronics. The experimental results demonstrate that Ni1Fe10-LDH@Ni 3 S 2 /NF possesses exceptional electrocatalytic performance for both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) compared to individual NiFe-LDH and Ni 3 S 2 . It demands 230 mV to drive a current density of 50 mA cm −2 toward OER while it just needs 197 mV to afford 20 mA cm −2 for HER. Additionally, Ni1Fe10-LDH@Ni 3 S 2 /NF as both cathode and anode in a two-electrode system just requires 1.65 V to reach 10 mA cm −2 and still remains stable after a 12 h chronoamperometry measures. The as-synthesized electrocatalyst with improved electrocatalytic performance, outstanding long-term stability and low-priced is prospective for overall water splitting practical production.