Lattice Mismatch in Ni₃Se₄–MoSe₂ Nanoheterostructures with an Abundant Interface for Catalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Developing catalysts with high efficiency and low cost toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is urgent for sustainable energy conversion. Among several modulated strategies, strain engineering is an effective strategy to enhance their catalytic behavior, and the strain can be easily introduced and tuned through lattice mismatch in heterostructure catalysts. The existence of strain in interfaces may increase the number of active sites by activating some inert sites, which display improved electrocatalytic properties in the large current. Herein, we synthesize Ni3Se4–MoSe2 nanorods with abundant interfaces (MN-Ni3Se4/MoSe2) to acquire large and widely distributed strain. As it is, the MN-Ni3Se4/MoSe2 exhibits excellent catalytic performances toward the HER in alkaline media, compared with Ni3Se4/MoSe2 without abundant interfaces (UN-Ni3Se4/MoSe2). The MN-Ni3Se4/MoSe2 only requires an overpotential of 243 mV to drive a current density of 80 mA cm–2, which is much lower than that of UN-Ni3Se4/MoSe2 (408 mV). This work not only provides a method to synthesize heterostructure catalysts with abundant interfaces but also verifies the catalytic effect improved by lattice strain in the large current density.