Fabrication of Porous Configurated Ni2P/Ni Foam Catalyst and its Boosted Properties for pH‐universal Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Efficient Nitrate Reduction

Abstract

AbstractNickel phosphide (Ni2P) has been widely explored toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for desirable durability and high performance. Tuning the electronic structures and morphologies of Ni2P plays a pivotal role in the improvement of HER performance. In this work, three Ni2P catalysts were fabricated by different strategies and their HER properties were compared. It was found that the bicontinuous porous structured Ni2P on Ni foam (Ni2P /NF−EHP) prepared using coupled electroless nickel‐phosphorus (Ni−P) plating, hydrothermal synthesis and low temperature phosphorization techniques, exhibits the best catalytic activity and a wide pH adaptability. The overpotential at 10 mA cm−2 and Tafel slope are 78 mV and 33 mV dec−1 in 0.5 M H2SO4, those in 1 M PBS are 125 mV and 93 mV dec−1, and 101 mV and 76 mV dec−1 in 1 M KOH. Additionally, the Ni2P/NF−EHP‐catalyzed HER process is also applicable for nitrate reduction with a remarkable removal efficiency of 92.6 %. This catalyst also exhibits a desirable durability both in HER and nitrate reduction. This work offers an efficient strategy to exploit compatible pH‐universal HER catalysts, explores the engineering application of HER process in nitrate reduction.