Hydrothermal Synthesis of Polyhedral Nickel Sulfide by Dual Sulfur Source for Highly-Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis

Transition metal sulfides are cheap and efficient catalysts for water splitting to produce hydrogen; these compounds have attracted wide attention. Nickel sulfide (NiS(2)) has been studied in depth because of its simple preparation process, excellent performance and good stability. Here, we propose a modification to the hydrothermal synthesis method for the fabrication of a highly efficient and stable NiS(2) electrocatalyst prepared by two different sulfur sources, i.e., sulfur powder and C(3)H(7)NaO(3)S(2) (MPS), for application in hydrogen evolution reactions. The obtained NiS(2) demonstrated excellent HER performance with an overpotential of 131 mV to drive -10 mA cm(−1) in 0.5 M H(2)SO(4) solution with 5mV performance change after 1000 cycles of stability testing. We believe that this discovery will promote the industrial development of nonprecious metal catalysts.