Hierarchical NiCo₂S₄@NiFe LDH Heterostructures Supported on Nickel Foam for Enhanced Overall-Water-Splitting Activity

Abstract

Low-cost and highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are intensively investigated for overall water splitting. Herein, we combined experimental research with first-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to engineer the NiCo₂S₄@NiFe LDH heterostructure interface for enhancing overall water-splitting activity. The DFT calculations exhibit strong interaction and charge transfer between NiCo₂S₄ and NiFe LDH, which change the interfacial electronic structure and surface reactivity. The calculated chemisorption free energy of hydroxide (ΔE_OH) is reduced from 1.56 eV for pure NiFe LDH to 1.03 eV for the heterostructures, indicating a dramatic improvement in OER performance, while the chemisorption free energy of hydrogen (ΔE_H) maintains almost invariable. By the use of the facile hydrothermal method, NiCo₂S₄ nanotubes, NiFe LDH nanosheets, and NiCo₂S₄@NiFe LDH heterostructures are prepared on nickel foam, of which the corresponding experimental OER overpotentials are 306, 260, and 201 mV at 60 mA cm^-2, respectively. These results are good agreement with the theoretical predictions. Meanwhile, the HER performance has little improvement, with an overpotential of about 200 mV at 10 mA cm^-2. Due to the dramatic improvement in OER performance, there was an enhancement in the overall water-splitting activity of the NiCo₂S₄@NiFe LDH heterostructures, with a low voltage of 1.6 V.