Effects of iron doping on the hydrogen evolution reaction performance of self-supported nickel selenides

In this paper, we prepared self-supported three-dimensional (3D) porous NiSe2 nanowrinkles with and without iron doping on Ni-Fe foam and Ni foam respectively through an inert-atmosphere selenization method, and investigated their electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline solutions. The overpotential to achieve 10 mA cm−2 for HER on the selenized Ni-Fe foam was 181 mV, which was about 35 mV lower than that on the selenized Ni foam. Meanwhile, the iron doping NiSe2 catalyst anchored on the Ni-Fe foam had desirable stability for HER, and the overpotential to achieve 10 mA cm−2 showed no obvious increase or even slight decrease after the stability measurement of 1 h. This work provides new insights for designing highly efficient non-noble transition metal-based electrocatalysts with excellent electrocatalytic performance in H2 production.