The design and synthesis of efficient, inexpensive, and long-term stable heterostructured electrocatalysts with high-density dislocations for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media and seawater are still a great challenge. An amorphous/crystalline/amorphous sandwiched structure with abundant dislocations were synthesized through thermal phosphidation strategies. The dislocations play an important role in the hydrogen evolution reactions. Copious dislocation defects, combined with cracks, and the synergistic interfacial effect between crystalline phase and amorphous phase regulate the electronic structure of electrocatalyst, provide more active sites, and thus endow the electrocatalysts with excellent catalytic activity under alkaline water and seawater. The overpotentials of P-NiMoO4 at 10 mA/cm2 in 1 M KOH aqueous solution and seawater are 45 and 75 mV, respectively. Additionally, the P-NiMoO4 electrocatalyst exhibits long-term stability over 100 h. This study provides a simple approach for synthesizing amorphous/crystalline/amorphous sandwiched non-noble-metal electrocatalysts with abundant dislocations for hydrogen evolution reaction.
Keywords: dislocation; electrocatalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; sandwiched structure; transition metal oxide.