Preparation of Co-W-P-O/NF catalyst with crystalline-amorphous phase structure by electrodeposition and study on its water splitting properties

Abstract

The development of renewable clean energy is imminent as global warming and environmental pollution become more serious issues today. Hydrogen energy has been widely studied as an ideal green energy source. Among several common hydrogen production methods, hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is considered an efficient, environmentally friendly, and sustainable hydrogen production strategy. Transition metal phosphates have outstanding electrocatalytic conductivity and high catalytic efficiency, thus exhibiting catalytic effects similar to noble metals. To further enhance the catalytic activity of the transition metal phosphates, in this paper, the cauliflower-like Co-W-P-O4/NF catalyst based on three-dimensional nickel foam was prepared by the method of element doping. The catalyst exhibited good bifunctional catalytic activity in alkaline solution. The prepared Co-W-P-O4/NF has a unique crystalline-amorphous phase structure with abundant active sites at the interface. In addition, W atoms can interact with Co atoms to co-optimise the electronic structure, enabling the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption (ΔGH*) to be close to 0, which is conducive to improving the performance of water electrolysis. To achieve a current density of 10 mA·cm−2, the Co-W-P-O4/NF required overpotentials of 42.1 mV for HER and 348.2 mV for OER in 1 M KOH solution, with the Tafel slopes being 48.0 and 83.6 mV·dec−1, respectively. When Co-W-P-O4/NF was used as both cathode and anode for water splitting, the two-electrode electrolyzer could achieve 10 mA·cm−2 with only 1.62 V, along with good stability.