Interface Modulation of MoS₂/Metal Oxide Heterostructures for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysis

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Developing efficient earth‐abundant MoS 2 based hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is important but challenging due to the sluggish kinetics in alkaline media. Herein, a strategy to fabricate a high‐performance MoS 2 based HER electrocatalyst by modulating interface electronic structure via metal oxides is developed. All the heterostructure catalysts present significant improvement of HER electrocatalytic activities, demonstrating a positive role of metal oxides decoration in promoting the rate‐limited water dissociation step for the HER mechanism in alkaline media. The as‐obtained MoS 2 /Ni 2 O 3 H catalyst exhibits a low overpotential of 84 mV at 10 mA cm −2 and small charge‐transfer resistance of 1.5 Ω in 1 m KOH solution. The current density (217 mA cm −2 ) at the overpotential of 200 mV is about 2 and 24 times higher than that of commercial Pt/C and bare MoS 2 , respectively. Additionally, these MoS 2 /metal oxides heterostructure catalysts show outstanding long‐term stability under a harsh chronopotentiometry test. Theoretical calculations reveal the varied sensitivity of 3d‐band in different transition oxides, in which Ni‐3d of Ni 2 O 3 H is evidently activated to achieve fast electron transfer for HER as the electron‐depletion center. Both electronic properties and energetic reaction trends confirm the high electroactivity of MoS 2 /Ni 2 O 3 H in the adsorption and dissociation of H 2 O for highly efficient HER in alkaline media.