Controlled synthesis of NiSe2-NiMoO4-MoO3 material on nickel foam as an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst in seawater and urea electrolytes

Abstract

Hydrogen energy is considered as a new clean energy to replace traditional fossil energy. How to achieve large-scale industrial production has always been a problem that we are committed to studying. Hydrogen generation by electrolysis of water is considered to be one of the most effective hydrogen production approaches at present. However, with the global shortage of fresh water resources, we urgently need to prepare an efficient and low-cost seawater splitting catalyst. In this paper, the heterogeneous NiSe₂-NiMoO₄-MoO₃ material was successfully synthesized on foamed nickel substrate through hydrothermal and calcination approaches. And it showed excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance, in 1 M KOH + seawater solution, the current density of 10 mA cm⁻² can be obtained with only overpotential of 105 mV. In 0.5 M urea+1 M KOH solution, a mere overpotential of 87 mV is required to drive a current density of 10 mA cm⁻². In the stability test of 15 h, the activity of the catalyst material remained stable after a short decline, showing acceptable stability performance. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations proved that NiMoO₄ plays a major role in the reaction and their synergistic catalysis results in better catalytic activity and stability. This study proposes a novel understanding for the preparation of HER catalyst with low cost and high efficiency.