Effect of Sputtering Power on the Structure and Electrocatalytic Performance of MoS₂ Coating

Non-precious metal hydrogen-producing electrocatalysts represented by molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) have attracted wide attention in hydrogen evolution catalysis due to their high catalytic performance. In this paper, the catalytic MoS₂ coating was prepared on a nickel foam (NF) substrate by magnetron sputtering method. The effects of different sputtering powers of 1000 W, 1500 W, 2000 W and 3000 W on the microstructure, microstructure and electrochemical initial overpotential of MoS₂ coating were studied. The results show that the change of sputtering power will affect the sputtering ion energy and thus affect the structural morphology, phase structure and electrochemical properties of MoS₂ coating. At different sputtering powers, the MoS₂ coating shows worm-like growth and 1T phase composition, with the increase of power, the surface morphology presents a preferred orientation along the (100) crystal surface. At 1500 W, the diffraction peak (100) is the strongest, the worm-like structure of the coating has many small branches, and the edge of the coating has the most exposed contact points. The electrochemical performance test results show that with the increase of sputtering power, the electrochemical initial overpotential of MoS₂ coating first decreases and then increases. The overpotential is the smallest at 1500 W sputtering power, and the initial overpotential is 148.5 mV at 10 mA/cm² current density.