Dual anions engineering on nickel cobalt-based catalyst for optimal hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis

Qiong Sun; Yun Tong; Pengzuo Chen; Lu Chen; Fengna Xi; Jiyang Liu; Xiaoping Dong

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.098

Dual anions engineering on nickel cobalt-based catalyst for optimal hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2021 May:589:127-134. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.098. Epub 2020 Dec 29.

Authors

Qiong Sun¹, Yun Tong², Pengzuo Chen³, Lu Chen³, Fengna Xi¹, Jiyang Liu¹, Xiaoping Dong⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
² Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China; Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fedérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: tongyun@mail.ustc.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fedérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Surface & Interface Science of Polymer Materials of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China. Electronic address: xpdong@zstu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33450455
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.12.098

Abstract

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a pivotal process for renewable energy storage devices. Improving the intrinsically catalytic activity of earth-abundant metals based electrocatalysts for HER is still a huge challenge. Herein, we put forward a dual phosphorus/sulfur (P/S) doped nickel-cobalt bimetallic material that was grown on nickel foam (S_n-NiCoP_x-NF, n = 1-4, NF stands for nickel foam) through a facile one-step phosphorization/sulfuration reaction. Those catalysts represent a novel kind of electrocatalysts with vastly optimized catalytic activity for HER. The S₂-NiCoP_x/NF with optimal P/S ratio achieves unexpectedly highly efficient catalytic activity for HER in alkaline medium. The overpotential at the current density of 50 mA cm^-2 is only 144 mV, which is almost 190 mV less than that of pristine nickel-cobalt bimetallic phosphide catalyst (NiCoP_x-NF). In addition, the S₂-NiCoP_x/NF also has fast reaction kinetics with the smallest Tafel slope of 66 mV/dec and exhibits high stability for HER. This work experimentally demonstrates the advantages of a dual anion modification strategy on improving catalytic activity. Our method offers a new approach to design highly efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts for energy storage and conversion devices.

Keywords: Alkaline medium; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Nanowire arrays; Ni-Co bimetals; P/S modification.