Electronic Structure Reconfiguration toward Pyrite NiS₂ <i>via</i> Engineered Heteroatom Defect Boosting Overall Water Splitting

Abstract

Developing highly active and low-cost heterogeneous catalysts toward overall electrochemical water splitting is extremely desirable but still a challenge. Herein, we report pyrite NiS₂ nanosheets doped with vanadium heteroatoms as bifunctional electrode materials for both hydrogen- and oxygen-evolution reaction (HER and OER). Notably, the electronic structure reconfiguration of pyrite NiS₂ is observed from typical semiconductive characteristics to metallic characteristics by engineering vanadium (V) displacement defect, which is confirmed by both experimental temperature-dependent resistivity and theoretical density functional theory calculations. Furthermore, elaborate X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements reveal that electronic structure reconfiguration of NiS₂ is rooted in electron transfer from doped V to Ni sites, consequently enabling Ni sites to gain more electrons. The metallic V-doped NiS₂ nanosheets exhibit extraordinary electrocatalytic performance with overpotentials of about 290 mV for OER and about 110 mV for HER at 10 mA cm^-2 with long-term stability in 1 M KOH solutions, representing one of the best non-noble-metal bifunctional electrocatalysts to date. This work provides insights into electronic structure engineering from well-designed atomic defect metal sulfide.