Engineering FeP4/CoFe2O4 heterostructure with balanced proton adsorption ability for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Developing cost-efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with low overpotential, fast kinetics and good stability is one of the challenges to promote the industrial application of water electrolysis technology. Herein, we construct a novel heterostructure electrocatalyst with abundant FeP4 nanoparticles grown on the surface of CoFe2O4 nanosheets for efficient HER catalysis. FeP4, as the crucial co-catalyst, not only promotes the proton adsorption process due to its large electronegativity but also improves the electron structure around the Co sites for optimizing H* coupling and H2 evolution process. Consequently, the FeP4/CoFe2O4 heterostructure electrocatalyst shows a much improved HER performance (η100 = 168 mV) and a faster reaction kinetics by comparing with the pristine FeP4 and CoFe2O4. Further electrochemical characterization demonstrates that the heterostructure is also beneficial to increase active sites and enhance intrinsic activity. This work provides a feasible perspective for constructing heterostructure to acquire excellent HER catalysts.