Novel electrocatalyst of nickel sulfide boron coating for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline solution

Seeking cost-effective and highly active non-precious hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is still strongly desired in water splitting. In this work, a low-cost and highly efficient HER electrocatalysts of amorphous Ni–S–B coating on nickel mesh is successfully synthesized by means of a simple current-density electrodeposition . The obtained Ni–S–B coating shows superior HER electrocatalytic activity as evidenced by low onset overpotential of 27 mV and 240 mV to drive 10 mA·cm −2 under alkaline conditions. Such high hydrogen evolution activity for Ni–S–B coating can be mainly attributed to the larger surface area (more exposed active sites), faster electron transport between electrode-catalyst-electrolyte interfaces, and nickel mesh substrate. Therefore, Ni–S–B coating can be applied as an efficient HER electrocatalyst to use in alkaline water electrolyzers.