Highly active bimetallic phosphide electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Developing economic, earth-abundant metal-based hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts with high-performance is a matter of great significance. Transition metal phosphides have attracted special attention and are considered as remarkable HER electrocatalysts. Here, we have successfully synthesized a bimetallic phosphide electrocatalyst (MoP/MoNiP@NC) via a one-step calcination and simultaneous phosphating process. The corresponding precursor is self-assembled through electrostatic and coordination interactions among 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 excellent electrochemical stability in acid–alkaline media compared to other reported TMPs. The superior hydrogen generation performance can be mainly assigned to the protection effect by a 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 phosphide electrocatalysts for water decomposition.