Pomegranate-like molybdenum phosphide@phosphorus-doped carbon nanospheres coupled with carbon nanotubes for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Rational design and synthesis of low-cost electrocatalysts with high-performance is of urgency for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report a facile synthetic approach to construct a pomegranate-like MoP@P-doped porous carbon nanospheres coupled with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) composite using metal-organic frameworks-CNTs hybrid as precursor, which was successfully employed as a robust electrocatalyst for the HER. Ascribed to the distinct nanostructure together with the synergistic coupling, the resultant composite exhibits highly efficient electrocatalytic performance, featured by a low onset overpotential of 75 mV, small Tafel slope of 55.9 mV dec(-1), as well as long-term stability for 10 h, which is comparable or even superior to the best MoP-based catalysts toward HER up to now. More importantly, this strategy can provide a new route in the construction of highly efficient Pt-free electrocatalysts for energy conversion fields. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.