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Research Article

Highly efficient and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution by molybdenum doped Ni-Co phosphide nanoneedles at high current density

Chengyu Huang1,§, Zhonghong Xia1,§, Jing Wang2,§, Jing Zhang1, Chenfei Zhao1, Xingli Zou3, Shichun Mu4, Jiujun Zhang1, Xionggang Lu3, Hong Jin Fan5, Shengjuan Huo1, Yufeng Zhao1( )
College of Sciences & Institute for Sustainable Energy, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Hebei Key Laboratory of Heavy Metal Deep-Remediation in Water and Resource Reuse, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Special Steel and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Advanced Ferrometallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798

§ Chengyu Huang, Zhonghong Xia, and Jing Wang contributed equally to this work.

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Graphical Abstract

The microsphere structure composed of nanoneedles Mo-doped NiCoP nanoneedles deposited on nickel foam (NF) using a gradient hydrothermal method and phosphation processes. The unique microsphere structure and the small-sized effect of nanoneedles formed by the gradient hydrothermal method, which provided good gas release ability and electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance.

Abstract

There is an increasingly urgent need to develop cost-effective electrocatalysts with high catalytic activity and stability as alternatives to the traditional Pt/C in catalysts in water electrolysis. In this study, microspheres composed of Mo-doped NiCoP nanoneedles supported on nickel foam were prepared to address this challenge. The results show that the nanoneedles provide sufficient active sites for efficient electron transfer; the small-sized effect and the micro-scale roughness enhance the entry of reactants and the release of hydrogen bubbles; the Mo doping effectively improves the electrocatalytic performance of NiCoP in alkaline media. The catalyst exhibits low hydrogen evolution overpotentials of 38.5 and 217.5 mV at a current density of 10 mA·cm−2 and high current density of 500 mA·cm−2, respectively, and only 1.978 V is required to achieve a current density of 1000 mA·cm−2 for overall water splitting. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the improved hydrogen evolution performance can be explained as a result of the Mo doping, which serves to reduce the interaction between NiCoP and intermediates, optimize the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption ( ΔG*H), and accelerate the desorption rate of *OH. This study provides a promising solution to the ongoing challenge of designing efficient electrocatalysts for high-current-density hydrogen production.

Keywords

water splittinghydrogen evolution reactiontransition metal phosphidesMo-doped NiCoPgradient hydrothermal

Electronic Supplementary Material

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Nano Research
Volume 17 Issue 3,
March 2024
Pages 1066-1074
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-023-5892-7
Cite this article:
Huang C, Xia Z, Wang J, et al. Highly efficient and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution by molybdenum doped Ni-Co phosphide nanoneedles at high current density. Nano Research, 2024, 17(3): 1066-1074. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5892-7
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Received: 05 May 2023
Revised: 30 May 2023
Accepted: 02 June 2023
Published: 26 July 2023
© Tsinghua University Press 2023
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