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Constructing the heterostructure of sulfide and layered double hydroxide as bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

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Abstract

The rational design of bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting that involves hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) is important but extremely challenging. In this work, we report a feasible method to fabricate the heterogeneous catalyst consisting of the sulfide and layered double hydroxide. The Co, Ni-based bimetallic sulfide with a unique cactus-like microstructure is in situ formed on Ni foam (NF) through the hydrothermal treatment; subsequently, Ni, Fe-layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) nanosheets vertically grow on the underlying sulfide to form the quintessential core–shell heterostructure via the electrodeposition process. The achieved electrocatalyst that labeled as CNS/LDH/NF demonstrates an outstanding catalytic activity for both hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as its delicate microstructure could provide abundant active sites and the tight coupling effect between the sulfide and hydroxide could facilitate the charge transfer process. The overpotentials for HER and OER at the current density of 100 mA cm−2 in an alkaline medium are 228 mV and 230 mV, respectively. When CNS/LDH/NF are used as both anode and cathode for overall water splitting, a cell voltage of 1.63 V is required to drive the current density of 10 mA cm−2. This work may shed some light on the reasonable construction of bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the financial support from the Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2022YFG0297) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2021SCU12056). We would like to thank Lingzhu Yu (National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University) for the help in characterizing SEM, the College of Chemistry and Analytical & Testing Center of Sichuan University, and the Ceshigo Research Service (www.ceshigo.com).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610064, China

    Weile Zhang, Shuai Wang, Guixiong Cao, Ping Zhang & Can Liu

  2. Department of Materials Engineering, Sichuan College of Architectural Technology, Deyang, 618000, China

    Zhansheng Wang

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  1. Weile Zhang
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Zhang, W., Wang, S., Wang, Z. et al. Constructing the heterostructure of sulfide and layered double hydroxide as bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting. J Solid State Electrochem 27, 575–583 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-022-05350-4

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