Electron redistributed vanadium anchored CoFe phosphides as effective electrocatalysts for boosting overall water splitting

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) with platinum-like electronic construction are emerging as prospective options for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline condi-tions. Still, the robust bonding strength between TMP with the related intermediates pre-vents a further enhancement in its electrocatalytic activity. This paper uses V doping modification strategy to adjust the electron distribution on the surface of bimetallic phosphides and improve their HER capability. When V-CoFeP is employed as a dual functional electrocatalyst under the environment of 1 M KOH, the cathode HER perfor-mance is 53 mV (h10) and the anode oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance is 175 mV (h50). For overall water decomposition, a dual electrode alkaline battery coupled with a dual functional electrocatalyst V-CoFeP needs only 1.845 V to achieve h50 which can hold its excellent electrocatalytic capability for 25 h. Finally, DFT calculations show that formation P vacancies and V doping induces an internal electron redistribution in V-CoFeP. Therefore, this work shows new insights for synthesizing highly active and stable electrocatalysts by adjusting the TMP electronic structure to achieve overall water decomposition.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.