Coupling Co2P/CoSe2 heterostructure nanoarrays for boosting overall water splitting

Abstract

Exploiting environmentally friendly and robust electrocatalysts for overall water splitting is of utmost importance in order to alleviate the excessive global energy consumption and climate change. Herein, a simple phosphoselenization method was used to prepare Co₂P and CoSe₂ coupled nanosheet and nanoneedle composite materials on nickel foam (Co₂P/CoSe₂/NF). Density functional theory calculations showed that Co₂P had a higher water adsorption energy compared with CoSe₂, indicating that H₂O molecules are strongly adsorbed on the active sites of Co₂P, which speeds up the kinetic process of water splitting. The Co₂P/CoSe₂-300 material displayed superior electrocatalytic activity for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in an alkaline medium. It's worth noting that the Co₂P/CoSe₂-300 composite material nanoarrays merely needed an ultralow overpotential of 280 mV to drive a current intensity of 100 mA cm⁻² for OER. In addition, when a two-electrode system was constructed for overall water splitting, the current intensity of 20 mA cm⁻² could be reached while requiring an ultrasmall cell voltage of 1.52 V, which is one of the best catalytic activities reported up to now. Experimental and density functional theory calculations showed that the superior electrocatalytic performance of Co₂P/CoSe₂-300 could be attributed to its higher electron-transfer rate, higher water adsorption energy, and the synergistic effect of Co₂P and CoSe₂. Our work provides a novel approach for the one-step construction of composite materials as environmentally friendly and inexpensive water splitting catalysts.