Phosphorus-doping induced electronic modulation of CoS2-MoS2 hollow spheres on MoO2 film-Mo foil for synergistically boosting alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction

Combination of anionic doping and multicomponent synergism are effective approach to improve the performance of electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) process. Herein, P-doped CoS2-MoS2 hollow spheres assembled by countless sheets on oxidized Mo foil (P-CoS2/MoS2/MoO2) was synthesized by hydrothermal and phosphorization process. The unique hollow structure with countless sheets as wall endows more accessible active sites, fast electron/mass transport and high conductivity. P-doping could redistribute the local charge density and optimize the surface charge state to improve the intrinsic activity and accelerate reaction kinetics. The optimized P-CoS2/MoS2/MoO2 exhibits an outstanding HER performance with an overpotential of 85 mV to reach 10 mA cm(-2), a small Tafel slope of 84.6 mV dec(-1), superior intrinsic HER activity and robust durability under alkaline solution. This work proposed a feasible strategy to build the hollow, heterostructured and binder-free electrode in renewable energy application. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.

Automated summary

The combination of anionic doping and multicomponent synergism is an effective approach to improve the performance of electrocatalysts in the hydrogen evolution reaction. The synthesized P-doped CoS2-MoS2 hollow spheres exhibit outstanding HER performance due to their unique hollow structure with countless sheets and P-doping optimization.