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Nano Research 2020, 13(9): 2469-2477 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2881-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 25 June 2020

Cobalt phosphide nanoarrays with crystalline-amorphous hybrid phase for hydrogen production in universal-pH

Show Author's Information Hyunseok Yoon,  Hee Jo Song,  Bobae Ju,  Dong-Wan Kim( )
School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Keywords:
electrocatalyst, cobalt phosphide, hydrogen evolution reaction, large-scale, self-supporting, universal-ph
Topics:
Cobalt compoundsCost effectivenessElectrocatalystsHydrogen evolution reaction Hydrogen productionNanosheets
An erratum to this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2960-0
Cite this article:
Yoon H, Song HJ, Ju B, et al. Cobalt phosphide nanoarrays with crystalline-amorphous hybrid phase for hydrogen production in universal-pH. Nano Research, 2020, 13(9): 2469-2477. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2881-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

To accomplish mass hydrogen production by electrochemical water-splitting, it is a necessary to develop robust, highly active, stable, and cost-effective hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts that perform comparably to Pt in the universal pH range. In this work, cobalt phosphide hybrid nanosheets supported on carbon felt (CoP HNS/CF) are presented, which exhibit the superior electrocatalytic hydrogen production under a universal-pH. In these nanosheets, a single CoP HNS is composed of polycrystalline CoP and oxygen-enriched amorphous Co-O-P phase. Benefiting from its unique nanoarchitecture, as-fabricated CoP HNS/CF exhibits a tremendous electrocatalytic HER activity and outperforms Pt/C as well as state-of-the-art CoP electrocatalysts in universal-pH. In acidic and neutral media, the CoP HNS/CF shows superior electrocatalytic activity while maintaining its original hybrid crystalline-amorphous phase and morphology. In alkaline medium, the unexpected phase and morphological reorganization of CoP HNS/CF results in outstanding electrocatalytic operation. CoP HNS/CF not only achieves high electrocatalytic activity and kinetics, but also a stable and long operating lifetime even under a high current density of 500 mA·cm-2. Furthermore, the fabrication of CoP HNS/CF can be scaled up easily, and the large CoP HNS/CF electrode also exhibits similar electrocatalytic activity and stability.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Cobalt phosphide nanoarrays with crystalline-amorphous hybrid phase for hydrogen production in universal-pH

Show Author's information Hyunseok Yoon, Hee Jo Song, Bobae Ju, Dong-Wan Kim( )
School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea

Abstract

To accomplish mass hydrogen production by electrochemical water-splitting, it is a necessary to develop robust, highly active, stable, and cost-effective hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts that perform comparably to Pt in the universal pH range. In this work, cobalt phosphide hybrid nanosheets supported on carbon felt (CoP HNS/CF) are presented, which exhibit the superior electrocatalytic hydrogen production under a universal-pH. In these nanosheets, a single CoP HNS is composed of polycrystalline CoP and oxygen-enriched amorphous Co-O-P phase. Benefiting from its unique nanoarchitecture, as-fabricated CoP HNS/CF exhibits a tremendous electrocatalytic HER activity and outperforms Pt/C as well as state-of-the-art CoP electrocatalysts in universal-pH. In acidic and neutral media, the CoP HNS/CF shows superior electrocatalytic activity while maintaining its original hybrid crystalline-amorphous phase and morphology. In alkaline medium, the unexpected phase and morphological reorganization of CoP HNS/CF results in outstanding electrocatalytic operation. CoP HNS/CF not only achieves high electrocatalytic activity and kinetics, but also a stable and long operating lifetime even under a high current density of 500 mA·cm-2. Furthermore, the fabrication of CoP HNS/CF can be scaled up easily, and the large CoP HNS/CF electrode also exhibits similar electrocatalytic activity and stability.

Keywords: electrocatalyst, cobalt phosphide, hydrogen evolution reaction, large-scale, self-supporting, universal-ph

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 01 April 2020
Revised: 12 May 2020
Accepted: 14 May 2020
Published: 25 June 2020
Issue date: September 2020

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea (No. 2016M3A7B4909318). We thank the Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI) for the technical support. Microstructural images were obtained using a Hitachi SU-70 scanning electron microscope at the KBSI.

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