Designing a novel cactus-like nickel cobalt phosphide based electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution

The synthesis and design of non-precious and efficient electrocatalysts by an eco-friendly technique are required for renewable and clean energy. This work reports a successful synthesis of nickel-cobalt phosphide (Ni-Co-P) anchored on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) for advanced electrocatalytic applications. Detail structural and morphological analyses reveal that the interfacial growth of Ni-Co-P on CFC possesses a unique hexagonal sheet exteriorly decorated with nanoneedles around the edges depicting a cactus-like morphology. This Ni-Co-P/CFC exhibits unprecedented electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with a current density of 10 and 200 mA cm(-2) acquires at the overpotential of 43 and 149 mV versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), respectively. Based on cyclic-voltammetry (CV) and Tafel plot results, it is deduced that this high activity is mainly credited to the large surface area and a large number of active sites from the hexagonal multilayer-sheet decorated with nanoneedles profile. Moreover, no significant deactivation is observed even after running for 12 h or at least 2000 CV cycles, suggesting excellent stability, making it a promising electrocatalyst. It is expected that our work could provide a new strategy to design non-precious and efficient electrocatalysts for practical applications with highly-active and better-durability for HER.

Automated summary

This study successfully synthesized nickel-cobalt phosphide (Ni-Co-P) anchored on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) for advanced electrocatalytic applications, exhibiting unprecedented catalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The high activity of this catalyst is mainly attributed to its large surface area and a large number of active sites, as deduced from cyclic-voltammetry (CV) and Tafel plot results.