We adopted a simple one-step electrochemical deposition to acquire an efficient nickel cobalt phosphorus (NiCoP) catalyst, which avoided the high temperature phosphatization engineering involved in the traditional synthesis method. The effects of electrolyte composition and deposition time on electrocatalytic performance were studied systematically. The as-prepared NiCoP achieved the lowest overpotential (η10 = 111 mV in the acidic condition and η10 = 120 mV in the alkaline condition) for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Under 1 M KOH conditions, optimal oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity (η10 = 276 mV) was also observed. Furthermore, the bifunctional NiCoP catalyst enabled a high-efficiency overall water-splitting by applying an external potential of 1.69 V. The surface valence and structural evolution of NiCoP samples with slowly decaying stability under alkaline conditions are revealed by XPS. The NiCoP is reconstructed into the Ni(Co)(OH)2 (for HER) and Ni(Co)OOH (for OER) on the surface with P element loss, acting as real "active sites".
Keywords: NiCoP; electrocatalyst; electrodeposition; surface reconstruction; water electrolysis.