Polymorphic CoSe2 with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction.

We report polymorphic CoSe2 (p-CoSe2) with mixed orthorhombic and cubic phases as a highly active electrocatalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The p-CoSe2 is obtained by calcining CoSex via electrodeposition at 300 °C. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) demonstrated the crystal structure of p-CoSe2. The p-CoSe2 exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity for HER with a low onset overpotential of -70 mV and a small Tafel slope of ∼30 mV/decade, which are basically state-of-the-art performance of earth-abundant electrocatalysts. The HER performance of p-CoSe2 was much higher than that of amorphous CoSex, cubic CoSe2, and CoSe. This study offers a competitive electrocatalyst for HER and opens up a new strategy to the synthesis of catalysts for energy conversion.