Gas-templating of hierarchically structured Ni-Co-P for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolutionElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: More physical characterization and additional electrochemical experiments of HS-NiCoP and other electronic format. See DOI: 10.1039/c7ta01716b

• Main Authors: Zhang, Peili, Chen, Hong, Wang, Mei, Yang, Yong, Jiang, Jian, Zhang, Biaobiao, Duan, Lele, Daniel, Quentin, Li, Fusheng, Sun, Licheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c7ta01716b

One of the grand challenges for developing scalable and sustainable hydrogen producing systems is the lack of efficient and robust earth-abundant element based catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a hierarchically structured Ni-Co-P film was fabricated via a gas templating electro-deposition method. This film exhibits remarkably high catalytic performance for the HER in 1 M KOH with respective current densities of −10 and −500 mA cm −2 at the overpotentials of −30 and −185 mV with a Tafel slope of 41 mV dec −1 . A controlled potential electrolysis experiment demonstrates that the as-prepared Ni-Co-P film is an efficient and robust catalyst with a faradaic efficiency close to 100%. Systematic characterization suggests that the unique hierarchical structure and the mutual participation of nano-sized Ni/Co based components are responsible for the high HER catalytic activity. A hierarchically structured Ni-Co-P film exhibits remarkable activity toward the hydrogen evolution reaction with a current density of −10 mA cm −2 at −30 mV vs. the RHE.