The
design and fabrication of eco-friendly, highly efficient, and
non-noble-metal-based catalysts are demanding challenges in energy-conversion
technologies. Herein, we successfully synthesized CuS nanosheets decorated
with CoS2 nanoparticles through a facile route. The optimized
3% CoS2-7% CuS catalysts exhibited remarkable electrocatalytic
performance, with excellent cyclic stability at all pH values for
the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). They exhibited lower Tafel
slopes (46, 52, and 59 mV dec–1) and smaller overpotentials
(62, 85, and 106 mV) at 10 mA cm–2 in 0.5 M H2SO4, 1 M KOH, and 0.5 phosphate buffer aqueous
solutions, respectively, than other CoS2/CuS, pure CoS2, and pure CuS catalysts. We attribute their high electrocatalytic
performance to their unique heterostructure and the synergistic effects
between the constituent metal sulfides that provides a large interfacial
contact area, numerous charge-transfer pathways, as well as abundant
surface reaction active sites, enhancing the charge-carrier transfer
during the HER activity.
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