Morphology Construction of Molybdenum Doped Nickel Sulfide Electrocatalyst Induced by NH₄F to Promote Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Through component regulation and morphological construction, it is of considerable significance to develop high-activity and high-stability electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution in electrolytic water. In the hydrothermal process, Mo-doped nickel-based sulfide catalysts (Mo-NiS-Fx) with a variety of morphologies (prisms, rods, flakes, and cones) were created by adding NH₄F with varying masses. Among these, the flaky Mo-NiS-F1.2 exhibited exceptional performance towards electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction, surpassing most similar catalysts with an overpotential of 79 mV at 10 mA cm^–2 and a Tafel slope of 49.8 mV dec^–1. Significantly, Mo-NiS-F1.2 maintained its high activity for hydrogen evolution over 60 h at a current density of 10 mA cm^–2, making it suitable for widespread commercial application. According to the experimental findings, an electrocatalyst with a high surface area and a porous structure is better suited to exposing more gas transfer routes and active sites, which would encourage the hydrogen evolution reaction. This study presents a straight-forward procedure for creating electrocatalysts with a range of morphologies, which can serve as a model for the creation of catalysts for use in industrial manufacturing.