Transition metal sulfides (TMS) exhibit proliferated edge sites, facile electrode kinetics, and improved intrinsic electrical conductivity, which demand low potential requirements for total water splitting application. Here, we have propounded copper sulfide-coupled cobalt sulfide nanosheets grown on 3D nickel as an electrocatalyst for hydrogen (HER) and oxygen evolution (OER) reactions. The formation of djurleite copper sulfide with a Cu vacancy enables faster H+ ion transport and shows improved HER activity with a remarkably lower overpotential of 164 mV at 10 mA/cm2, whereas cobalt-incorporated copper sulfide undergoes cation exchange during synthesis and shows elevated OER activity with a lower overpotential of 240 mV at 10 mA/cm2 for the OER. Moreover, Cu2-xS/Co is said to have a hybrid CoS-CoS2 interface and provide Co2+ active sites on the surface and enable the fast adsorption of intermediate species (OH*, O*, and OOH*), which lowers the potential requirement. The copper vacancy and cation exchange with a hybrid CoS-CoS2 structure are helpful in supplying more surface reactive species and faster ion transport for the HER and OER, respectively. The full-cell electrolyzer requires a very low potential of 1.58 V to attain a current density of 10 mA/cm2, and it shows excellent stability for 50 h at 100 mA/cm2 as confirmed by the chronopotentiometry test.
Keywords: CoS−CoS2 interface; HER; OER; djurleite copper sulfide; electrocatalysis; nickel sulfide; overall water splitting.