Periodically ordered mesoporous iron phosphide for highly efficient electrochemical hydrogen evolution

Cong Zhang; Zhichao Gao; Lei Zhao; Jing Ai; Nan Li; Xiaotian Li

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.070

Periodically ordered mesoporous iron phosphide for highly efficient electrochemical hydrogen evolution

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Jun 1:569:68-75. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.070. Epub 2020 Feb 18.

Authors

Cong Zhang¹, Zhichao Gao¹, Lei Zhao¹, Jing Ai¹, Nan Li², Xiaotian Li³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun 130012, PR China.
² Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun 130012, PR China. Electronic address: lin@jlu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials (Ministry of Education), School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, 2699 Qianjin Street, Changchun 130012, PR China. Electronic address: xiaotianli@jlu.edu.cn.

PMID: 32097802
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2020.02.070

Abstract

There is a pressing demand to explore alternative to Pt-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in water electrolysis. In this study, an iron phosphide catalyst with periodically ordered mesoporous structure (meso-FeP) was fabricated via a nanocasting method for the HER. The as-prepared meso-FeP exhibited high electrocatalytic activity, affording 10 mA·cm^-2 current density at small overpotentials of 114 mV and 136 mV with the maintenance of its catalytic activity for at least 22 h in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ and 1.0 M KOH, respectively. The outstanding performance is attributed to the high specific surface area (209.4 m² g^-1) derived from ordered mesopores, which endows the catalyst with abundant electrochemically active sites and accessible mass transport pathway. This work provides an efficient strategy to prepare mesoporous phosphides as high-performance hydrogen evolution catalysts.

Keywords: Electrocatalysis; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Iron phosphide; Ordered mesoporous structure; Water splitting.