MoS2 anchored on Ni-MOF as efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline freshwater and natural seawater

Achieving clean hydrogen energy requires the logical development of stable, high-performance, and inexpensive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts. Herein, a range of Ni-MOF@MoS 2 -X/NF (X = 0.05, 0.06, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20) heterogeneous electrocatalysts were constructed by anchoring MoS 2 nanosheets onto the surface of nickel-based metal-organic framework (Ni-MOF) material self-supported on nickel foam (NF) via weak interactions under a two-step solvothermal method, which exhibited flower-like microspheres with interconnected nanosheets. Compared with Ni-MOF/NF, Ni-MOF@MoS 2 -X/NF (X = 0.05, 0.06, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20) show prominent HER electrocatalytic property in 1.0 M KOH solution. Specifically, the optimal Ni-MOF@MoS 2 -0.15/NF exhibits better HER electrocatalytic property than the Pt/C catalyst, which has a lower overpotential of only 25 mV with the Tafel slope of 54.68 mV dec −1 at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 in alkaline solution. Furthermore, in natural seawater, an overpotential of 90 mV was required to drive the HER process at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 . The 60 h stability tests of Ni-MOF@MoS 2 -0.15/NF in natural seawater and 1.0 M KOH showed excellent endurance. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the ΔG H∗ of Ni-MOF@MoS 2 (0.50 eV) is lower than that of Ni-MOF (0.96 eV). This work presents a novel approach to constructing effective HER catalysts made of non-precious metals in natural seawater.