Uniform Loading of Nickel Phosphide Nanoparticles in Hierarchical Carbonized Wood Channel for Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

The development of self-supporting high-efficiency catalysts is a major challenge for the efficient production of H2 via water splitting. In this manuscript, a freestanding Ni2P-Ni12P5/carbonized wood (CW) composite electrode was prepared by a simple hydrothermal method and high-temperature calcination using pine wood with uniform channel as support and a large number of hydroxyl groups as nucleation center. The morphology and structural characteristics indicated that the Ni2P and Ni12P5 nanoparticles were uniformly distributed within the hierarchical porous structure of the CW. In acid media, the as-prepared Ni2P-Ni12P5/CW exhibits an excellent catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 151 mV at 10 mA cm-2 and a reasonably good long-term stability.