Post-decorated synthesis of metal-organic frameworks derived Ni/Ni3S2@CN electrocatalyst for efficient hydrogen evolution

MOF-derived materials are known as effective electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a new 2D structured Ni-MOF (CUST-516) was synthesized, and physically post-decorated with glucose, urea and Ni(NO 3 ) 2 ·6H 2 O simultaneously, used as precursors to obtain Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN electrocatalyst by high temperature calcination. Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN shows excellent HER activity with low overpotentials of 141 ​mV and 187 ​mV at 10 ​mA ​cm −2 as well as long-term stability up to 24 ​h in 1.0 ​M KOH and 0.5 ​M ​H 2 SO 4 solutions, respectively. The excellent electrocatalytic performance of Ni/Ni 2 S 3 @CN can be attributed to the synergistic effect of multi-components, the unique pore structure derived from precursor MOF, which enables the nanoparticles to be evenly distributed. Moreover, the post-decorated sources help to generate the doping of N elements and carbon layers, which increases the conductivity, prevents the aggregation of nanoparticles and corrosion, resulting in the enhanced complementary properties. This work provides a general post-decorated MOFs derivatization strategy to synthesize low-cost and efficient HER electrocatalysts. In this study, Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN electrocatalyst was synthesized using the post-decorated MOF powders as precursors by high temperature calcination. Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN exhibits excellent hydrogen generation activity and durability for 24 ​h in alkaline and acidic media. The excellent HER catalytic activity of Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN can be attributed the synergy effect of multicomponent, uniformly distribution, N doped carbon layers protecting. • A new 2D structured Ni-MOF (CUST-516) was used to obtain Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN electrocatalyst. • Ni/Ni 3 S 2 @CN exhibits satisfactory hydrogen production performance. • This work provides a simple MOFs derivatization strategy to synthesize low-cost and efficient HER electrocatalysts.