Synthesis of amorphous trimetallic PdCuNiP nanoparticles for enhanced OER
Yangzi Zheng, Ruiyun Guo, Xiang Li, Tianou He, Weicong Wang, Qi Zhan, Rui Li, Ke Zhang, Shangdong Ji, Mingshang Jin
Abstract
Metal phosphides with multi-element components and amorphous structure represent a novel kind of electrocatalysts for promising activity and durability towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). In this work, a two-step strategy, including alloying and phosphating processes, is reported to synthesize trimetallic amorphous PdCuNiP phosphide nanoparticles for efficient OER under alkaline conditions. The synergistic effect between Pd, Cu, Ni, and P elements, as well as the amorphous structure of the obtained PdCuNiP phosphide nanoparticles, would boost the intrinsic catalytic activity of Pd nanoparticles towards a wide range of reactions. These obtained trimetallic amorphous PdCuNiP phosphide nanoparticles exhibit long-term stability, nearly a 20-fold increase in mass activity toward OER compared with the initial Pd nanoparticles, and 223 mV lower in overpotential at 10 mA cm −2 . This work not only provides a reliable synthetic strategy for multi-metallic phosphide nanoparticles, but also expands the potential applications of this promising class of multi-metallic amorphous phosphides.