Highly Active Bimetallic Phosphides Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Developing economic, high-performance earth-abundant metal-based hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is a matter of great account. Transition metal phosphides have appealed to special attention and are considered as remarkable HER electrocatalysts. For this reason, we have successfully synthesized bimetallic phosphide electrocatalyst (MoP/MoNiP@NC) by one-step calcination and simultaneously phosphating process with the precursor self-assembled through electrostatic and coordination interactions with polyoxometalate (Mo40), nickel ions and polypyrrole. MoP/MoNiP@NC shows splendid electrocatalytic activity with overpotentials of 125 and 144 mV at 10 mA cm-2, and good electrochemical stability in acid-alkaline media. The good hydrogen generation performance can be mainly assigned by the protection effect by porous conductive carbon layer structure and the synergistic effect of multiple species in MoP/MoNiP@NC. This study provides an operational and easy approach to synthesize earth-abundant metal-based phosphides electrocatalysts for water decomposition.

Keywords: Polypyrrole, Phosphides, Electrocatalysis, HER