Electrocatalytic water splitting for efficient hydrogen evolution using molybdenum disulfide nanomaterials

[Display omitted] •A facile hydrothermal synthesis of MoS2 nanosheets and its anisotropic growth over Nickel foam (NF) substrate.•A study on the direct and indirect growth of the catalyst material over the substrate and its effect on electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance.•MoS2@NF exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity towards efficient hydrogen evolution reaction.•The stability of the catalyst material in acidic medium was investigated. Generation of hydrogen through electrocatalytic water splitting has gained huge interest as it is a cheaper and environment friendly energy generation technique, which can meet the increasing energy demands of the globe. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) assures to be a compromising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) candidate due to its multi-crystal structure, bandgap, abundant active surface sites, and high specific surface area. In this work, we report a facile synthesis of MoS2 nanosheets for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. The growth of the nanomaterials over the nickel foam substrate resulted in a mixed morphology comprising both nanosheets and nanorods, enhancing the HER performance. MoS2 directly grown over the substrate exhibited a fairer value of overpotential of 114 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 61 mV dec−1 in acidic medium.