The development of efficient and low-cost transition-metal
electrocatalysts
is of great significance for hydrogen production from water splitting.
Herein, we synthesized three-dimensional strawlike MoSe2-NiSe composed of microrods on nickel foam (NF) by a one-step hydrothermal
reaction. The as-prepared MoSe2-NiSe/NF exhibited effective
hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity (low overpotential of 79
mV at 10 mA cm–2 and stability of 21 h in 1 M KOH),
benefiting from the large electrochemically active area provided by
strawlike structures, proper Se content, and synergistic effect of
active phases. The enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity
(the low overpotential of 217 mV at 10 mA cm–2 and
maintaining stability for 47 h in 1 M KOH) was further observed for
Fe-doped MoSe2-NiSe/NF (MoSe2-NiFeSe/NF) prepared
by facile soaking, which can be mainly ascribed to optimized active
phases formed on the OER process after Fe doping. The two-electrode
system (MoSe2-NiSe/NF||MoSe2-NiFeSe/NF) requires
a low cell voltage of 1.54 V to obtain a current density of 10 mA
cm–2 in 1 M KOH, which provides an interesting idea
for constructing an effective overall water splitting system.