Nanocoral-like NiSe2 modified with CeO2: A highly active and durable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution in alkaline solution

Abstract The excessive exhaustion of conventional fossil fuels and increasingly severe environmental issues prompt us to grope for high-performance and cost-effective catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) by electrocatalytic water splitting. In this work, nanocoral-like NiSe2 catalysts modified with CeO2 have been successfully prepared through one-pot hydrothermal route and utilized to electrocatalytic HER in alkaline solution. It turns out that nanocoral-like NiSe2 (labeled as CNS-2) catalyst delivers current densities of 10 and 50 mA cm−2 at overpotentials of only 130 and 242 mV, respectively. Additionally, CNS-2 takes on a small Tafel slope of 115 mV dec−1 and low charge transfer resistance, revealing a quicker Faradaic process and more favorable HER kinetics. Furthermore, it displays considerable long-term stability during the constant hydrogen producing. The strategy of fabricating NiSe2 modified with CeO2 unfolds a novel angle of view for exploiting highly efficient and durable catalysts for electrocatalytic HER.