Hollow Mo-doped CoP nanoarrays for efficient overall water splitting

By C. Guan, Wen Xiao, Haijun Wu, Ximeng Liu, W. Zang, Hong Zhang, Jun Ding, Y. Feng, S. Pennycook, John Wang. Nano Energy, 2018

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Abstract Earth-abundant, efficient and durable electrocatalysts for water splitting are vitally important for a sustainable energy system. Here we report the rational design of hollow Mo-doped CoP (Mo-CoP) nanoarrays, which simultaneously combine electronic structure modification through doping with a high density of reaction sites through nanostructuring. With this strategy the Mo-CoP arrays give significantly improved hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance, and also, when in situ transformed into Mo-doped CoOOH (Mo-CoOOH) arrays, excellent activity towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is obtained. The origin of the improvement is determined by atomic-resolution imaging combined with density functional theory (DFT). An electrolyzer using Mo-CoP and Mo-CoOOH can be powered by a single AA battery (~1.5 V), and maintains a stable water-splitting current for 20 h, superior to most reported electrocatalysts in alkaline media, offering great promise for practical applications.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/64e2026e13a51163563b15bbe60958f0a3008d27