Three-dimensional flower-like WP2 nanowire arrays grown on Ni foam for full water splitting

Abstract

A novel three-dimensional (3D) flower-like tungsten phosphide (WP2) nanowire arrays catalyst in-situ grown on nickel foam (NF) is explored. Since this 3D nanostructured electrocatalysts (WP2 NW/NF) can expose the abundant active sites, and promote electrolyte osmosis to shorten the electron transfer path, the WP2 NW/NF electrode shows excellent electrocatalytic performance. The current densities of the 3D nanostructured WP2 NW/NF electrode achieve 10 mA cm−2 at lower cell potentialof 1.65 V for overall water splitting, revealing that this 3D nanostructured electrode possesses great application prospect in electrolysis of water to produce large-scale hydrogen and oxygen.