Self-supported vanadium-incorporated cobalt phosphide as a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for water splitting

Abstract

The development of bifunctional electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has recently attracted significant attention. Transition metal-based electrocatalysts have demonstrated a highly promising catalytic performance in electrochemical HER or OER. Moreover, their electrocatalytic performance can be further improved using a self-supported structure of the electrocatalyst, owing to strong physicochemical contact between the catalyst and current collector. In this context, we propose vanadium-incorporated cobalt phosphide (CoVP) self-supported catalysts on carbon cloth (CoVP@CC) as highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for alkaline HER and OER. In CoVP@CC, V plays a crucial role in modulating the surface electronic structure of the self-supported CoP nanosheets, leading to excellent catalytic activity in both HER and OER. The self-supported CoVP@CC demonstrates a promising overall water-splitting performance, requiring only 1.61 V to afford a current density of 10 mA cm−2.