Three-dimensional amorphous tungsten-doped nickel phosphide microsphere as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Amorphous tungsten-doped nickel phosphide (a-WNP) microspheres with three-dimensional (3D) ravine-like nanostructures on the surface were successfully fabricated via a fast and facile grain-mediated electroless method. The resulting W-doped Ni_xP exhibits an outstanding electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction with a low onset potential of −50 mV, overpotential of 110 mV at 20 mA cm⁻², and small Tafel slope of 39 mV dec⁻¹. The amorphous architecture and the doping of W are considered to be major contributions for the improvement of catalytic performance. The results in this paper might promote a new route to gain both amorphous and doped materials with special electrochemical properties for advanced catalysts and other devices.