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Nano Research 2019, 12(12): 2960-2965 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2538-x
Research Article | Issue | Published: 17 October 2019

Rational design of phosphorus-doped cobalt sulfides electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution

Show Author's Information Guoxing Qu1,  Tianli Wu2,  Yanan Yu1,  Zekang Wang1,  Yang Zhou1,  Zhendong Tang3,  Qin Yue1( )
Institute of Fundamental and Frontier SciencesUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChengdu610054China
Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic MaterialsHenan UniversityKaifeng475004China
Ordnance NCO AcademyArmy Engineering University of PLAWuhan430075China
Keywords:
water splitting, electrocatalysts, hydrogen evolution reaction, P doping, cobalt sulfide
Topics:
Cobalt depositsDensity functional theoryElectrocatalystsElectrolysis Electronic structureGas adsorptionSulfur compounds
Cite this article:
Qu G, Wu T, Yu Y, et al. Rational design of phosphorus-doped cobalt sulfides electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution. Nano Research, 2019, 12(12): 2960-2965. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2538-x
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Moderate anionic doping is an effective approach to improve the performance of electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) since it can adjust the electronic structure, active site, and phase. The reported studies mainly focus on designing P doped CoS2, while other phases of cobalt sulfide, such as Co1-xS and Co9S8 doped with P are rarely investigated for HER electrocatalysts. Herein, various cobalt sulfides (including CoS2/Co1-xS, Co1-xS, and Co9S8) doped with P are anchored on carbon cloth through a facile hydrothermal method. Among tested electrocatalysts, P doped Co1-xS exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance with an overpotential of 110 and 165 mV (vs. RHE) for current densities of 10 and 100 mA·cm-2, respectively. Density functional theory calculations reveal that P doped Co1-xS possesses a smaller bandgap and more optimal hydrogen adsorption sites than pristine Co1-xS. This work initially investigates various cobalt sulfides doped with P and further gets insight into the activity improvement mechanism of P doping, which could guide the design of earth-abundant HER electrocatalysts for the "hydrogen economy".


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About this article

Rational design of phosphorus-doped cobalt sulfides electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution

Show Author's information Guoxing Qu1, Tianli Wu2, Yanan Yu1, Zekang Wang1, Yang Zhou1, Zhendong Tang3, Qin Yue1( )
Institute of Fundamental and Frontier SciencesUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChengdu610054China
Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic MaterialsHenan UniversityKaifeng475004China
Ordnance NCO AcademyArmy Engineering University of PLAWuhan430075China

Abstract

Moderate anionic doping is an effective approach to improve the performance of electrocatalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) since it can adjust the electronic structure, active site, and phase. The reported studies mainly focus on designing P doped CoS2, while other phases of cobalt sulfide, such as Co1-xS and Co9S8 doped with P are rarely investigated for HER electrocatalysts. Herein, various cobalt sulfides (including CoS2/Co1-xS, Co1-xS, and Co9S8) doped with P are anchored on carbon cloth through a facile hydrothermal method. Among tested electrocatalysts, P doped Co1-xS exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance with an overpotential of 110 and 165 mV (vs. RHE) for current densities of 10 and 100 mA·cm-2, respectively. Density functional theory calculations reveal that P doped Co1-xS possesses a smaller bandgap and more optimal hydrogen adsorption sites than pristine Co1-xS. This work initially investigates various cobalt sulfides doped with P and further gets insight into the activity improvement mechanism of P doping, which could guide the design of earth-abundant HER electrocatalysts for the "hydrogen economy".

Keywords: water splitting, electrocatalysts, hydrogen evolution reaction, P doping, cobalt sulfide

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 02 August 2019
Revised: 05 September 2019
Accepted: 07 October 2019
Published: 17 October 2019
Issue date: December 2019

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21701153) and National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (No. BX201700042).

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