Boosting oxygen evolution reactivity by modulating electronic structure and honeycomb-like architecture in Ni2P/N,P-codoped carbon hybrids

Menglei Yuan, Yu Sun, Yong Yang, Jingxian Zhang, Sobia Dipazir, Tongkun Zhao, Shuwei Li, Yongbing Xie, He Zhao, Zhanjun Liu, Guangjin Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Oxygen evolution reaction (OER) as the foremost stumbling block to generate cost-effective clean fuels has received extensive attention in recent years. But, it still maintains the challenge to manipulate the geometric and electronic structure during single reaction process under the same conditions. Herein, we report a simple self-template strategy to generate honeycomb-like Ni2P/N,P–C hybrids with preferred electronic architecture. Experiments coupled with theoretical results revealed that the synthesized catalyst has two characteristics: firstly, the unique honeycomb-like morphology not only enables the fully utilization of catalytic active sites but also optimizes the mass/electron transportation pathway, which favor the diffusion of electrolyte to accessible active sites. Secondly, N,P–C substrate, on the one hand, largely contributes the electronic distribution near Fermi level (EF) thus boosting its electrical conductivity. On the other hand, the support effect result in the upshift of d-band center and electropositivity of Ni sites, which attenuates the energy barrier for the adsorption of OH and the formation of ∗OOH. In consequence, the optimized Ni2P/N,P–C catalysts feature high electrocatalytic activity towards OER (a low overpotential of 252 mV to achieve 10 mA cm−2) and 10 h long-term stability, the outstanding performance is comparable to most of transition metal catalysts. This work gives a innovative tactics for contriving original OER electrocatalysts, inspirng deeper understanding of fabricating catalysts by combining theoretical simulation and experiment design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)866-874
Number of pages9
JournalGreen Energy and Environment
Volume6
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Keywords

  • Honeycomb-like architecture
  • Modulating electronic structure
  • NiP
  • Oxygen evolution reaction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

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