Regulating Phase Conversion from Ni₃Se₂ into NiSe in a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Overall Water-Splitting Enhancement

Phase engineering has been demonstrated as an efficient method for the enhancement of catalytic activity. This study concerns the phase and morphology modulation of Ni₃Se₂/NiSe nanorod arrays through a hydrothermal process. Partial phase conversion can effectively enhance the electrical conductivity and yield more active sites through atom rearrangement during phase transformation. Quite low optimal overpotentials of 166 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 370 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are obtained in a sample containing 32.4 % of NiSe phase and 67.6 % of Ni₃Se₂ phase. The performance is superior to the samples with only one phase. Furthermore, a water electrolyzer was assembled by using two symmetrical NiSe/Ni foam electrodes as the anode and cathode, which can deliver 10 mA cm⁻² at a low voltage of 1.61 V. More significantly, the water electrolyzer can be operated at 10 mA cm⁻² over 10 h without noticeable degradation, showing extraordinary operational stability. This phase conversion control strategy provides a new way to improve the catalytic activity of NiSe and may have potential use in the design of other selenide electrocatalysts.