Biologically templated formation of Cobalt-Phosphide-Graphene hybrids with charge redistribution for efficient hydrogen evolution

Xingchen Zhou; Lanqian Gong; Chunxia Wu; Yujie Peng; Bingying Cao; Huan Yang; Daoxiong Wu; Xueliang Jiang; Bao Yu Xia

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.047

Biologically templated formation of Cobalt-Phosphide-Graphene hybrids with charge redistribution for efficient hydrogen evolution

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024 Sep:669:787-793. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.047. Epub 2024 May 9.

Authors

Xingchen Zhou¹, Lanqian Gong², Chunxia Wu³, Yujie Peng³, Bingying Cao¹, Huan Yang⁴, Daoxiong Wu⁵, Xueliang Jiang¹, Bao Yu Xia⁶

Affiliations

¹ Hubei Key Laboratory of Plasma Chemistry and Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Engineering Process of Ministry of Education, Wuhan Institute of Technology, No. 206 Guanggu 1st Road, Wuhan 430205, China.
² Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, China.
³ School of Marine Science and Engineering, Hainan Provincial Key Lab of Fine Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China.
⁴ Hubei Key Laboratory of Plasma Chemistry and Advanced Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Engineering Process of Ministry of Education, Wuhan Institute of Technology, No. 206 Guanggu 1st Road, Wuhan 430205, China. Electronic address: yangh@wit.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Marine Science and Engineering, Hainan Provincial Key Lab of Fine Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China. Electronic address: daoxiong@hainanu.edu.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: byxia@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 38744156
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.047

Abstract

Developing highly efficient and sustainable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is important for the practical application of emerging energy technologies. The spherical structure and phosphorus-rich properties of Chlorella can facilitate the construction of comparable transition metal phosphide electrocatalysts. Here, a microorganism template strategy is proposed to construct a cobalt-phosphide-graphene hybrid. Chlorella can absorb metal ions, and the generated rough spherical nanoparticles are uniformly distributed around the reduced graphene oxide nanosheets. This designed catalyst has comparable HER performance in acidic electrolytes and needs an overpotential of only 153 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2. The experimental and density functional theory results imply that the charge redistribution between Co₂P and pyrrole-N is the key factor in enhancing the HER activity. The induced electron aggregation at the N and P sites can serve as a key active site for absorbing the adsorbed hydrogen atom intermediate to accelerate the HER process, contributing to the active sites of Co₂P- and pyrrole-N-doped carbon with 0 eV hydrogen adsorption free energy. This work provides a broad idea for synthesizing advanced catalysts by a biological template approach, facilitating the innovative integration of biology and emerging electrochemical energy technologies.

Keywords: Carbon template; Electrocatalyst; Hydrogen evolution reaction; Microorganism.