Phosphorus/sulfur co-doped heterogeneous NiCoPxSy nanoarrays boosting overall water splitting

Qianqian Fu; Hui Wang; Kunlun Nie; Xuyun Wang; Jianwei Ren; Rongfang Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.081

Phosphorus/sulfur co-doped heterogeneous NiCoP_xS_y nanoarrays boosting overall water splitting

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Jan;653(Pt A):443-453. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.081. Epub 2023 Sep 12.

Authors

Qianqian Fu¹, Hui Wang², Kunlun Nie¹, Xuyun Wang³, Jianwei Ren⁴, Rongfang Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China.
² College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: wanghui3931@126.com.
³ College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China. Electronic address: wangxy@qust.edu.cn.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg, Cnr Kingsway and University Roads, Auckland Park 2092, Johannesburg, South Africa. Electronic address: jren@uj.ac.za.
⁵ College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China; Changshu Institute for Hydrogen Energy, Changshu 215505, China.

PMID: 37725874
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.09.081

Abstract

In the large-scale implementation of renewable energy devices, the availability of stable and highly catalytic non-precious metal catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is crucial. Meanwhile, integrating bifunctional electrocatalysts simultaneously on both the anode and cathode still faces challenges. To address this, a stepped preparation strategy was adopted on a nickel foam (NF) substrate to synthesize P, S co-doped NiCoP_xS_y nanowire array catalysts. The prepared NiCoP_xS_y catalysts demonstrated a small Tafel slope of 72.5 mV dec^-1 for HER and 72.3 mV dec^-1 for OER by requiring only 37 mV (326 mV) overpotential to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 (50 mA cm^-2). Moreover, when assembled into an electrolytic cell in 1 M KOH, the NiCoP_xS_y catalysts achieved a low voltage of 1.55 V at 10 mA cm^-2 current density and exhibited long-term stability. The outstanding electrocatalytic performance can be attributed to the influence of doped anions on the electronic states and distribution among different atoms, which thereby positively affected the electrocatalytic activity. This research provides an effective method for designing innovative catalysts and paving the way to produce clean energy.

Keywords: Heterogeneous NiCoP(x)S(y) Nanoarrays; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Overall Water Splitting; Oxygen evolution reaction.