Defect Engineering and Carbon Supporting to Achieve Ni-Doped CoP₃ with High Catalytic Activities for Overall Water Splitting

This work reports the use of defect engineering and carbon supporting to achieve metal-doped phosphides with high activities and stabilities for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline media. Specifically, the nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber-supported Ni-doped CoP₃ with rich P defects (Pv·) on the carbon cloth (p-NiCoP/NCFs@CC) is synthesized through a plasma-assisted phosphorization method. The p-NiCoP/NCFs@CC is an efficient and stable catalyst for the HER and the OER. It only needs overpotentials of 107 and 306 mV to drive 100 mA cm⁻² for the HER and the OER, respectively. Its catalytic activities are higher than those of other catalysts reported recently. The high activities of the p-NiCoP/NCFs@CC mainly arise from its peculiar structural features. The density functional theory calculation indicates that the Pv· richness, the Ni doping, and the carbon supporting can optimize the adsorption of the H atoms at the catalyst surface and promote the strong electronic couplings between the carbon nanofiber-supported p-NiCoP with the surface oxide layer formed during the OER process. This gives the p-NiCoP/NCFs@CC with the high activities for the HER and the OER. When used in alkaline water electrolyzers, the p-NiCoP/NCFs@CC shows the superior activity and excellent stability for overall water splitting.