Superhydrophilic 3D peony flower-like Mo-doped Ni2S3@NiFe LDH heterostructure electrocatalyst for accelerating water splitting

Constructing highly efficient nonprecious electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is essential to improve the efficiency of overall water splitting, but still remains lots of obstacles. Herein, a novel 3D peony flower-like electrocatalyst was synthesized by employing Mo–Ni2S3/NF nanorod arrays as scaffolds to in situ growth ultrathin NiFe LDH nanosheets (Mo-Ni2S3@NiFe LDH). As expected, the novel peony flower-like Mo–Ni2S3@NiFe LDH displays superior electrocatalytic activity and stability for both OER and HER in alkaline media. Low overpotentials of only 228 mV and 109 mV are required to achieve the current densities of 50 mA cm−2 and 10 mA cm−2 for OER and HER, respectively. Additionally, the material remarkably accelerates water splitting with a low voltage of 1.54 V at 10 mA cm−2, which outperforms most transition metal electrodes. The outstanding electrocatalytic activity benefits from the following these features: 3D peony flower-like structure with rough surface provides more accessible active sites; superhydrophilic surfaces lead to the tight affinity between electrode with electrolyte; metallic Ni substrate and highly conductive Mo–Ni2S3 nanorods scaffold together with offer fast electron transfer; the nanorod arrays and porous Ni foam accelerate gas bubble release and ions transmission; the strong interfacial effect between Mo-doped Ni3S2 and NiFe LDH shortens transport pathway, which are benefit for electrocatalytic performance enhancement. This work paves a new avenue for construction and fabrication the 3D porous structure to boost the intrinsic catalytic activities for energy conversion and storage applications.