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Nano Research 2017, 10(3): 1010-1020 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1360-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 18 January 2017

Flexible cobalt phosphide network electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution at all pH values

Show Author's Information Jianwen Huang1,2,  Yanrong Li1,  Yufei Xia2,  Juntong Zhu2,  Qinghua Yi2,  Hao Wang2,  Jie Xiong1( ),  Yinghui Sun2( ),  Guifu Zou2( )
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Film and Integrated DevicesUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChengdu610054China
College of Physics, Optoelectronics and EnergyInstitute of Chemical Power Sources & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow UniversitySuzhou215006China
Keywords:
nanocrystalline, flexible, hydrogen evolution, CoP network, all-pH
Cite this article:
Huang J, Li Y, Xia Y, et al. Flexible cobalt phosphide network electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution at all pH values. Nano Research, 2017, 10(3): 1010-1020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1360-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

High-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting at all pH values have attracted considerable interest in the field of sustainable hydrogen evolution. Herein, we report an efficient electrocatalyst with a nanocrystalline cobalt phosphide (CoP) network for water splitting in the pH range of 0-14. The novel flexible electrocatalyst is derived from a desirable nanocrystalline CoP network grown on a conductive Hastelloy belt. This kind of self-supported CoP network is directly used as an electrocatalytic cathode for hydrogen evolution. The nanocrystalline network structure results in superior performance with a low onset overpotential of ~45 mV over a broad pH range of 0 to 14 and affords a catalytic current density of 100 mA·cm-2 even in neutral media. The CoP network exhibits excellent catalytic properties not only at extreme pH values (0 and 14) but also in neutral media (pH = 7), which is comparable to the behavior of state-of-the-art platinum-based metals. The system exhibits an excellent flexible property and maintains remarkable catalytic stability during continuous 100-h-long electrolysis even after 100 cycles of bending/extending from 100° to 250°.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Flexible cobalt phosphide network electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution at all pH values

Show Author's information Jianwen Huang1,2, Yanrong Li1, Yufei Xia2, Juntong Zhu2, Qinghua Yi2, Hao Wang2, Jie Xiong1( ), Yinghui Sun2( ), Guifu Zou2( )
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Film and Integrated DevicesUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChengdu610054China
College of Physics, Optoelectronics and EnergyInstitute of Chemical Power Sources & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, Soochow UniversitySuzhou215006China

Abstract

High-performance electrocatalysts for water splitting at all pH values have attracted considerable interest in the field of sustainable hydrogen evolution. Herein, we report an efficient electrocatalyst with a nanocrystalline cobalt phosphide (CoP) network for water splitting in the pH range of 0-14. The novel flexible electrocatalyst is derived from a desirable nanocrystalline CoP network grown on a conductive Hastelloy belt. This kind of self-supported CoP network is directly used as an electrocatalytic cathode for hydrogen evolution. The nanocrystalline network structure results in superior performance with a low onset overpotential of ~45 mV over a broad pH range of 0 to 14 and affords a catalytic current density of 100 mA·cm-2 even in neutral media. The CoP network exhibits excellent catalytic properties not only at extreme pH values (0 and 14) but also in neutral media (pH = 7), which is comparable to the behavior of state-of-the-art platinum-based metals. The system exhibits an excellent flexible property and maintains remarkable catalytic stability during continuous 100-h-long electrolysis even after 100 cycles of bending/extending from 100° to 250°.

Keywords: nanocrystalline, flexible, hydrogen evolution, CoP network, all-pH

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 26 August 2016
Revised: 19 October 2016
Accepted: 04 November 2016
Published: 18 January 2017
Issue date: March 2017

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support from the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2015CB358600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21527805), the Excellent Young Scholar Fund from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21422103), Jiangsu Fund for Distinguished Young Scientist (No. BK20140010), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20151228), the Natural Science Foundation in High Education of Jiangsu Province (No. 16KJB430024), and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 20133201120028).

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