Interfacial engineering of CeO2 on NiCoP nanoarrays for efficient electrocatalytic oxygen evolution

Transition metal phosphides (TMP)-based oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts constructed by interface engineering strategy have a broad prospect due to their low cost and good performance. Herein, a novel CeO2/NiCoP nanoarray with intimate phosphide (NiCoP)-oxide (CeO2) interface was developed via in situ generation on nickel foam (NF). This structure is conducive to increasing active sites and accelerating charge transfer, and may be conducive to regulating electronic structure and adsorption energy. As expected, optimal 1.4-CeO2/NiCoP/NF delivers a low overpotential of 249 mV at the current density of 10 mA cm(-2) with a Tafel slope of 77.2 mV dec(-1). CeO2/NiCoP/NF boasts one of the best OER catalytic materials among recently reported phosphides (TMP)-based OER catalysts and composite catalysts involving CeO2. This work provides an effective strategy for the construction of hetero-structure with CeO2 with oxygen vacancies to improve the OER performance of phosphides.

Automated summary

Transition metal phosphides (TMP)-based oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, such as the novel CeO2/NiCoP nanoarray developed in this study, show promising potential for low-cost and high-performance OER applications. The interface engineering strategy used in this work enhances active sites, accelerates charge transfer, and optimizes electronic structure and adsorption energy, resulting in improved OER performance. The CeO2/NiCoP nanoarray on nickel foam delivers competitive OER catalytic performance among reported TMP-based catalysts, demonstrating the effectiveness of hetero-structures with CeO2 for enhancing OER activity in phosphides.