Bio-inspired design of NiFeP nanoparticles embedded in (N,P) co-doped carbon for boosting overall water splitting

Xiangrui Zhang; Xue-Rong Shi; Peijie Wang; Zhiyu Bao; Mengru Huang; Yanan Xu; Shusheng Xu

doi:10.1039/d3dt00583f

Bio-inspired design of NiFeP nanoparticles embedded in (N,P) co-doped carbon for boosting overall water splitting

Dalton Trans. 2023 May 22;52(20):6860-6869. doi: 10.1039/d3dt00583f.

Authors

Xiangrui Zhang¹, Xue-Rong Shi¹, Peijie Wang¹, Zhiyu Bao¹, Mengru Huang¹, Yanan Xu¹, Shusheng Xu¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Materials Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, P.R. China. shixuer05@mails.ucas.ac.cn.

PMID: 37157968
DOI: 10.1039/d3dt00583f

Abstract

The design and synthesis of cost-effective and stable bifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting via a green and sustainable fabrication way remain a challenging problem. Herein, a bio-inspired method was used to synthesize NiFeP nanoparticles embedded in (N,P) co-doped carbon with the added carbon nanotubes. The obtained Ni_0.8Fe_0.2P-C catalyst displayed excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performances in both alkaline and alkaline simulated seawater solutions. The optimal Ni_0.8Fe_0.2P-C/NF only needs overpotentials of 45 and 242 mV to reach the current density of 10 mA cm^-2 under HER and OER working conditions in 1.0 M KOH solution, respectively. First-principles calculations revealed the presence of a strong interaction between the carbon layer and metal phosphide nanoparticles. Benefiting from this and carbon nanotubes modification, the fabricated Ni_0.8Fe_0.2P-C presents impressive stability, working continuously for 100 h without collapse. A low alkaline cell voltage of 1.56 V for the assembled Ni_0.8Fe_0.2P-C/NF//Ni_0.8Fe_0.2P-C/NF electrocatalyzer could afford a current density of 10 mA cm^-2. Moreover, when integrated with a photovoltaic device, the bifunctional Ni_0.8Fe_0.2P-C electrocatalyst demonstrates application potential for sustainable solar-driven water electrolysis.