Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Ni and NiMo Sulfides on Ni Foam for Electrocatalysis

Due in part to its large surface area to volume ratio and easy accessibility, nickel foam has been extensively researched as a support electrode for a variety of electrochemical processes. Further, a variety of Ni alloys have shown excellent performance in oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions, and therefore, are currently being evaluated for use in wide ranging applications from energy storage to water splitting. In this work, we use low pressure chemical vapor deposition to grow an outer layer of Ni sulfides and NiMo sulfides on Ni foam by varying the amount of precursor material, growth temperatures, as well as the growth geometry. The resulting sulfide films are then evaluated by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to determine the structure and morphology of the resulting electrode surfaces. The electrochemical properties of the structures are evaluated utilizing cyclic voltammetry.