Highly active Mo-modified NiCoP/NiCoN flower-like sphere: Controlled phase engineering for efficient water splitting

Abstract

Reasonable design and preparation of a versatile catalyst for the ultra-high efficiency energy conversion system has remarkable practical significance. Herein, a facile phase engineering strategy is employed to synthesize molybdenum modified nickel cobalt nitride and nickel cobalt phosphide flower-like sphere heterostructure (labeled as Mo-NiCoP/NiCoN FS) to improve the performance of Mo-NiCoN FS. The significant geometric structure advantages, the exposure to abundant active centers and the interfacial effect of heterostructure of the target product is evaluated in detail. When the as-obtained Mo-NiCoP/NiCoN FS is applied to the electrochemical bifunctional hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), it demonstrates remarkable electrocatalytic activity, high-conductivity and excellent corrosion resistance compared with Mo-NiCoN FS with a single phase. As a result, Mo-NiCoP/NiCoN FS indicates a low overpotential towards HER (204 mV at 10 mA/cm2) and OER (262 mV at 10 mA/cm2) compared with Mo-NiCoN (234 mV for HER and 357 mV for OER at 10 mA/cm2) in an alkaline medium and it exhibits excellent activity and stability during the dual-electrode full water-splitting. Therefore, the advanced nano-catalyst with superior activity developed through the controllable phase engineering method illustrates a potential application prospect in high efficiency energy equipment water-splitting and fuel-cells.