Integrated strategies on cobalt phosphides-based electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

The development of cost-effective and durable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts plays a vital role in dealing with the issues related to carbon dioxide emission. Cobalt phosphide-based nanomaterials are evaluated as promising advocates for HER due to high catalytic activities, good stability, and rich defect. This review commences with an exploration of the synthetic pathways of CoP, including solid-phase, solution-phase along with electrochemical methods. Besides, the mechanism of hydrogen formation is expressed thoroughly, after which various integrated strategies of morphology engineering with doping, assisted highly conductive materials, and construction of heterostructure were introduced for HER. Ultimately, burdensome tasks and possible guidance for the advancement of CoP-based nanomaterials were discussed for hydrogen production.