In situ electrochemical metal (Co, Ni) oxide deposition on MoS2 nanosheets for highly efficient electrocatalytic water splitting

Abstract

Highly active, robust and easy-to-get electrocatalysts based on earth-abundant elements are desirable to generate hydrogen and oxygen as fuels from water sustainably to replace noble metal materials. Here we report an in situ electrochemical approach to synthesize metal (Co, Ni) oxide decorated MoS₂ nanosheets for water splitting. The CoO/MoS₂/CC exhibits an overpotential of 93 mV for hydrogen evolution and 210 mV for oxygen evolution at 10 mA cm⁻² with a Tafel slope value of 57.9 mV dec⁻¹ and 282 mV dec⁻¹. Moreover, we achieve 10 mA cm⁻² at 1.65 V for 12 h in basic alkaline electrolyte for overall water splitting. The results presented here offer a simple method to fabricate effective non-noble-metal electrode materials for overall water splitting.