Preparation of molybdenum phosphide nanoparticles/nitrogen-phosphorus co-doped carbon nanosheet composites for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

The molybdenum phosphide (MoP) nanoparticles supported by phosphorus and nitrogen co-doped carbon nanosheet (N, P–C) have been prepared through simple one-step calcination method. The composition and morphology of the prepared hybrids were further characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and so on. The characterization results prove that the annealing temperature plays an essential role in the fabrication of nanosheets morphology. All characterization results prove that the MoP nanoparticles were uniformly loaded on N,P–C nanosheets. As excepted, the unique nanosheet structure not only contributes to mass transfer and electron transfer, but also increases electrochemical surface area. The obtained MoP/N,P–C-900 composites exhibit excellent HER activity and long-time stability (η ​= ​129 ​mV for reaching 10 ​mA ​cm−2 and 10 ​h for successive testing), which is superior than many other non-precious metal electrocatalysts. The present work affords a promising strategy for designing novel HER electrocatalysts, which may be applied in storage systems and diverse energy conversion.