Co4S3 grafted 1 T-phase dominated WS2 ultrathin nanosheet arrays for highly efficient overall water splitting in alkaline media

Qimin Peng; Xue Shao; Chuan Hu; Zuyang Luo; Tayirjan Taylor Isimjan; Zhifeng Dou; Ruobing Hou; Xiulin Yang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.02.031

Co₄S₃ grafted 1 T-phase dominated WS₂ ultrathin nanosheet arrays for highly efficient overall water splitting in alkaline media

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Jun:615:577-586. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.02.031. Epub 2022 Feb 8.

Authors

Qimin Peng¹, Xue Shao¹, Chuan Hu¹, Zuyang Luo¹, Tayirjan Taylor Isimjan², Zhifeng Dou³, Ruobing Hou¹, Xiulin Yang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, Guangxi 541004, China.
² Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: isimjant@sabic.com.
³ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Tropical Island Resources (Ministry of Education), Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China. Electronic address: douzf@hainanu.edu.cn.
⁴ Guangxi Key Laboratory of Low Carbon Energy Materials, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, Guangxi 541004, China. Electronic address: xlyang@gxnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35152077
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.02.031

Abstract

Developing the earth-abundant transition metal-based bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting and renewable energy devices has attracted much attention. Herein, we report a 1 T-WS₂ in ultrathin nanosheet arrays grafted with Co₄S₃ on conductive carbon cloth (CC) (1 T-Co₄S₃-WS₂/CC) through a feasible in-situ growth and vulcanization. The optimized 1 T-Co₄S₃-WS₂/CC catalyst exhibits an impressive electrocatalytic activity and remarkable stability with the oxygen/hydrogen evolution reaction (OER/HER: 278/75 mV for 10 mA cm^-2). It also showed the small Tafel slope values of 61.7 and 58.4 mV dec^-1, respectively. Additionally, the 1 T-Co₄S₃-WS₂/CC^(-/+) achieved 1.59 V@10 mA cm^-2 in alkaline media superior to the most previously reported non-precious metal electrocatalysts. The outstanding performance could be attributed to the synergy between heterostructures of Co₄S₃ and 1 T-WS₂ modifying the electronic structure to accelerate water splitting kinetics. Thus, this work presents a rational design of scalable, high-efficiency, stable water splitting electrocatalysts based on WS₂.

Keywords: 1T-Co(4)S(3)-WS(2); Overall water splitting; Oxygen and hydrogen evolution; Synergistic effect; Ultrathin nanosheet arrays.