Highly efficient nanoporous CoBP electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction
Hui-Lan Guang, Shengli Zhu, Yanqin Liang, Shuilin Wu, Zhaoyang Li, Shuiyuan Luo, Zhenduo Cui, Akihisa Inoue
Abstract
Abstract Water splitting is an environment friendly and efficient way to produce hydrogen. Highly efficient and low‐cost non‐noble metal catalysts play an important role in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Dealloying is a simple method to prepare three‐dimensional self‐supporting nanoporous materials without conductive supports and binders. In this work, we prepared self‐supporting nanoporous CoBP electrocatalyst by dealloying method. The influence of the synergistic effect of nonmetallic elements on catalytic activity was investigated. The synergistic electronic effect of Co, B and P atoms on the surface optimizes the H atoms desorption and results in superior HER activity. The bi‐continuous structure of nanoporous CoBP provides more active area and favors of electron and electrolyte transfer. The nanoporous CoBP with the B/P atomic ratio of 1/3 exhibits low overpotential of 42 mV at 10 mA·cm −2 , small Tafel slope of 39.8 mV·dec −1 and good long‐term stability with no performance decrease for 20 h in alkaline solution.