Ruthenium-manganese phosphide nanohybrid supported on graphene for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction in acid and alkaline conditions

Abstract

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have been proved to be promising, economical and effective catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Precious metals with transition metals alloying can appropriately adjust the adsorption energy, which is an effective solution for greatly reducing the cost of noble metal catalysts and improving their inherent performance. Herein, a simple method was employed to synthesize MnRuPOGO-500 nano-catalysts with a particle size of about 5 nm, which showed excellent HER performance under both acid and basic media. In acidic solution, the optimal catalyst displayed the overpotential of HER to reach 10 mA cm−2 with 109 mV, a small Tafel slope of 38.55 mV dec−1 and long-time durability of 60 h. Especially in alkaline medium, the low overvoltage of 27 mV, a small Tafel slope of 57.35 mV dec−1 and continuing stability of 48 h were further achieved. Meanwhile, we can find that manganese has negligible HER activity, but the doping of manganese generates a synergistic modulation effect in the MnP–Ru2P alloy, thereby improving the HER performance of the catalyst. This paper brings a simple scheme and unique insights to the design of transition metals and platinum group metals (PGMs) phosphide alloy electrocatalysts.