Enhancing hydrogen evolution electrocatalytic performance in neutral media via nitrogen and iron phosphide interactions

DOI: 10.1002/smsc.202100032

Authors: Siyu Zhao (University College London (UCL)) , Ruikuan Xie (Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences) , Liqun Kang (University College London (UCL)) , Manni Yang (University College London) , Xingyu He (University of Cincinnati) , Wenyao Li (University College London) , Ryan Wang (University College London) , Dan J. L. Brett (University College London) , Guanjie He (University College London; University of Lincoln) , Guoliang Chai (Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Fujian Science & Technology Innovation Laboratory for Optoelectronic Information of China; Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry) , Ivan P. Parkin (University College London)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Small Science , VOL 355

State: Published (Approved)
Published: May 2021
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 19850

Abstract: It remains a challenge to develop efficient electrocatalysts in neutral media for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to the sluggish kinetics and switch of the rate determining step. Although metal phosphides are widely used HER catalysts, their structural stability is an issue due to oxidization, and the HER performance in neutral media requires improvement. Herein, a new material, i.e., grapevine‐shaped N‐doped iron phosphide on carbon nanotubes, as an efficient HER catalyst in neutral media is developed. The optimized catalyst shows an overpotential of 256 mV at a large current density of 65 mA cm−2, which is even 10 mV lower than that of the commercial 20% Pt/C catalyst. The excellent performance of the catalyst is further studied by combined computational and experimental techniques, which proves that the interaction between nitrogen and iron phosphides can provide more efficient active structures and stabilize the metal phosphide electrocatalysts for HER.

Journal Keywords: ex situ characterization; hydrogen evolution reactions; iron phosphide; nitrogen doping; water splitting

Subject Areas: Chemistry, Energy


Instruments: B18-Core EXAFS

Added On: 10/05/2021 09:16

Documents:
smsc.202100032.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Earth Sciences & Environment Sustainable Energy Systems Energy Climate Change Physical Chemistry Catalysis Chemistry

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES)