Heterostructured Co₂P Nanocomposite Embedded in a N, P Co-Doped Carbon Layer as a High Performance Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting

Abstract

Hydrogen is the mainstream future energy source because of its high energy density and environmentally-friendly properties. In this study, Fe-Co2P/NPC materials were prepared by the wet chemical synthesis method, in which Fe-Co2P nanowires were wrapped by the N, P co-doped carbon layers (NPC) under aging and phosphorylation strategies. When Fe-Co2P/NPC/NF was subjected to hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the overpotential was only 73 mV and 217 mV to reach the current density of 10 mA cm−2, respectively. When the cathode and anode were both Fe-Co2P/NPC/NF, a current density of 10 mA cm−2 was achieved with only 1.56 V. This work provides a new idea for the design and preparation of non-precious metal-based transition metal phosphide catalysts.

Keywords

• transition metal phosphide
• water splitting
• hydrogen evolution
• oxygen evolution
• N, P co-doped carbon