Metal heteroatom doped carbon materials display remarkable catalytic performance in the electrochemical CO 2 reduction (ECR) because the doped heteroatoms can significantly change the local density of state and electronic structure of carbon, which induces charge polarization or structural defects. Herein, we synthesized S-doped Ni II -triazolate precursors with high purity and crystallinity through a simple one-step hydrothermal method. The high-temperature pyrolysis process produced a series of Ni−S−C T (T = 800, 900, 1000 °C) materials with Ni 3 S 2 as the main component. It resulted in significant carbon structure defects in the catalyst, which increased the specific surface area and pore volume, providing a basis for improving the ECR activity. Through the structural characterizations of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman, X-ray photoelectron (XPS), Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electrochemical characterizations of linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), chronoamperometry (i−t curve), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and electrochemical active surface area (ECSA), as well as gaseous product analysis, we can build the structural-performance relationship. Ni−S−C T catalysts all reached the highest CO Faraday efficiency at −1.5 V vs Ag/AgCl potential, among which Ni−S−C 1000 exhibited the best catalytic activity (FE CO of 66.6% and j CO of 1.28 mA/ cm 2 ). It also displayed excellent stability and recyclability, which could realize the efficient reuse of the catalyst. In addition, the density functional theory (DFT) calculation was carried out on Ni 3 S 2 to illustrate the ECR activity origination. It is the first report on Ni 3 S 2 -based catalysts in the application of ECR.