Self-supported phosphorus-doped CoMoO4 rod bundles for efficient hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Herein, a series of phosphorus-doped CoMoO4 rod bundles electrocatalysts on 3D nickel foams have been successfully synthesized and exploited as efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst in 1 M KOH. The incorporation of phosphorus into CoMoO4 can significantly promote the HER activity, and the CoMoO4 bundles phosphorized at 350 °C exhibited the optimum activity, which only required low overpotentials of 56 and 148 mV to deliver cathodic current densities of 10 mA cm−2 and 100 mA cm−2, respectively. This electrode also presented considerable long-term electrochemical stability with negligible delay after 30 h operation and 3000 accelerated cyclic voltammetry cycles. Our study provides a superior earth-abundant catalyst for efficient HER in alkaline media, which also suggests that P doping engineering is an effective way to boost the HER activity of transition metal-based oxides.