To achieve high efficiency of water electrolysis to produce hydrogen (H2), developing non-noble metal-based catalysts with considerable performance have been considered as a crucial strategy, which is correlated with both the interphase properties and multi-metal synergistic effects. Herein, as a proof of concept, a delicate NiCo(OH)x-CoyW catalyst with a bush-like heterostructure was realized via gas-template-assisted electrodeposition, followed by an electrochemical etching-growth process, which ensured a high active area and fast gas release kinetics for a superior hydrogen evolution reaction, with an overpotential of 21 and 139 mV at 10 and 500 mA cm-2, respectively. Physical and electrochemical analyses demonstrated that the synergistic effect of the NiCo(OH)x/CoyW heterogeneous interface resulted in favorable electron redistribution and faster electron transfer efficiency. The amorphous NiCo(OH)x strengthened the water dissociation step, and metal phase of CoW provided sufficient sites for moderate H immediate adsorption/H2 desorption. In addition, NiCo(OH)x-CoyW exhibited desirable urea oxidation reaction activity for matching H2 generation with a low voltage of 1.51 V at 50 mA cm-2. More importantly, the synthesis and testing of the NiCo(OH)x-CoyW catalyst in this study were all solar-powered, suggesting a promising environmentally friendly process for practical applications.
Keywords: Heterostructured electrocatalyst; Hydrogen evolution; Interfacial and doping engineering; Solar-driven; Urea-assisted water splitting.