Electrodeposition of Ni-Mo-P coatings in choline chloride-ethylene glycol deep eutectic electrolyte for high performance electrocatalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing impressive and low-cost electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is the key for large-scale application of hydrogen production. Herein, a series of non-noble Ni-Mo-P coatings were achieved in the ChCl-EG electrolyte through a facile electrodeposition method under different experimental conditions. The 0.6Ni-0.21Mo-0.066 P coating fabricated at 30 mAcm−2 exhibits an impressive HER catalytic activity for delivering a current density of 10 mAcm−2 at only an overpotential of 57 mV in 1 M KOH electrolyte, ascribing to the synergistic effect of Ni, Mo and P elements and regulated electron structures, as well as large electrochemical active areas produced in the ChCl-EG electrolyte. Moreover, the 0.6Ni-0.21Mo-0.066 P coating demonstrates a pronounced electrocatalytic stability toward HER in the long-term test due to its obviously small inners tress. The outstanding HER performance of 0.6Ni-0.21Mo-0.066 P coating, along with facile and scalable fabrication method, highlights the potential application in the field of electrocatalytic water splitting.