Microwave-assisted synthesis of NiS(2) nanostructures for supercapacitors and cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic H(2) production

Uniform NiS(2) nanocubes are successfully synthesized with a microwave-assisted method. Interestingly, NiS(2) nanocubes, nanospheres and nanoparticles are obtained by controlling microwave reaction time. NiS(2 )nanomaterials are primarily applied to supercapacitors and cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic H(2) production. Different morphologies of NiS(2) nanostructures show different electrochemical and cocatalytic enhancing H(2) production activities. Benefited novel nanostructures, NiS(2) nanocube electrodes show a large specific capacitance (695 F g(−1) at 1.25 A g(−1)) and excellent cycling performance (the retention 93.4% of initial specific capacitance after 3000 cycles). More importantly, NiS(2 )nanospheres show highly cocatalytic enhancing photocatalytic for H(2 )evolution, in which the photocatalytic H(2) production is up to 3400 μmol during 12 hours under irradiation of visible light (λ>420 nm) with an average H(2) production rate of 283 μmol h(−1).