Engineering interfacial sulfur migration in transition-metal sulfide enables low overpotential for durable hydrogen evolution in seawater

Abstract Hydrogen production from seawater remains challenging due to the deactivation of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrode under high current density. To overcome the activity-stability trade-offs in transition-metal sulfides, we propose a strategy to engineer sulfur migration by constructing a nickel-cobalt sulfides heterostructure with nitrogen-doped carbon shell encapsulation (CN@NiCoS) electrocatalyst. State-of-the-art ex situ / in situ characterizations and density functional theory calculations reveal the restructuring of the CN@NiCoS interface, clearly identifying dynamic sulfur migration. The NiCoS heterostructure stimulates sulfur migration by creating sulfur vacancies at the Ni 3 S 2…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22072151, 22388102, 22005299
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Sciences

  Awards: YSBR-022, XDA22010601