Sphere-Shaped Bimetallic Sulphoselenide: An Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Bimetallic chalcogenides Fe2PdSe2 (diselenide) as well as Fe2PdSSe (sulphoselenide) were prepared and characterized by different techniques, such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resoltuion scanning electron microscopy (HR-SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The Fe2PdSSe has a sphere shape, as confirmed by HR-SEM and HR-TEM. The efficacy of both chalcogenides as a catalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an acidic environment was measured using different techniques, and Fe2PdSSe was found to be the better electrocatalyst as compared to Fe2PdSe2. The Fe2PdSSe displays overpotential of 104.2 mV vs RHE for 10 mA cm(-2) current density and Tafel slope of 82.42 mV decade(-1). The remarkable electrocatalytic performance of Fe2PdSSe toward HER was found because of its sphere-shaped surface morphology that generates a greater number of active sites, higher Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area, large electrochemically active surface area, small charge-transfer resistance, and large double-layer capacitance. We can conclude that the presence of both S and Se in sulphoselenide (Fe2PdSSe) is also responsible for the enhanced electrocatalytic activity.