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3D urchin like V-doped CoP in situ grown on nickel foam as bifunctional electrocatalyst for efficient overall water-splitting

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Abstract

Cobalt phosphide (CoP) is considered to be a potential candidate in the field of electrocatalysis due to its low-cost, abundant resources and high electrochemical stability. However, there is a great space for further improvement of its electrocatalytic performance since its charge transfer rate and catalytic activity have not reached a satisfactory level. Herein, we design and fabricate a three dimensional urchins like V-doped CoP with different amounts of V-doping on nickel foam electrode. The V-doped CoP/NF electrode with optimized amounts of V-doping (10%) exhibits outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance under universal-pH conditions and preeminent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance in alkaline media. Notably, the assembled water-splitting cell displays a cell voltage of only 1.53 V at 10 mA·cm−2 and has excellent durability, much better than many reported related bifunctional catalysts. The experiment results and theoretical analysis revealed that vanadium atoms replace cobalt atoms in CoP lattice. Vanadium doping can not only raise the density of electronic states near the Fermi level enhancing the conductivity of the catalyst, but can also optimize the free energy of hydrogen and oxygen-containing intermediates adsorption over CoP, thus promoting its catalytic activity. Moreover, the unique nanostructure of the catalyst provides the various shortened channels for charge transfer and reactant/electrolyte diffusion, which accelerates the electrocatalytic process. Also, the in situ growth strategy can improve the conductivity and stability of the catalyst.

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Acknowledgements

The work reported here was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52072196). We acknowledge the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen, P. R. China for their computations assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Electromechanical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Hongyao Xue & Zhenjiang Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Alan Meng

  3. Shandong Shida Shenghua Chemical Group Co., Ltd., Dongying, 257503, China

    Haiqin Zhang

  4. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266061, China

    Yusheng Lin & Zhenjiang Li

  5. National Engineering Laboratory for Advanced Equipments and Key Materials for Tires, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China

    Chuansheng Wang

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  1. Hongyao Xue
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Correspondence to Zhenjiang Li or Chuansheng Wang.

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12274_2021_3359_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

3D urchin like V-doped CoP in situ grown on nickel foam as bifunctional electrocatalyst for efficient overall water-splitting

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Xue, H., Meng, A., Zhang, H. et al. 3D urchin like V-doped CoP in situ grown on nickel foam as bifunctional electrocatalyst for efficient overall water-splitting. Nano Res. 14, 4173–4181 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3359-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3359-2

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