Biomass-based protic ionic liquid derived N, P, co-doped porous carbon-coated CoP nanocrystals for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

Authors：Ma, Jiaojiao; Chi, Xiao; Huang, Yiming; Zou, Ren; Li, Di; Li, Zengyong; Li, Xuehui; Liu, Chuanfu^*; Peng, Xinwen^*

Source：Journal of Materials Science, 2021, 56(32): 18188-18199.

DOI：10.1007/s10853-021-06235-z

• BIFUNCTIONAL ELECTROCATALYSTS
• NITROGEN
• NANOPARTICLES
• OXYGEN
• GRAPHENE
• LITHIUM
• NANOSTRUCTURE
• NANOSHEETS
• NANOTUBES
• DESIGN

Biomass-based protic ionic liquids (BILs), green solvents with inherent properties, have the potential as precursors of functionalized catalytic carbon materials. Simple one-step design and preparation of BILs-based porous carbonbased materials remains a challenge. Our demonstration here was to use BIL as an important precursor for synthesizing porous carbon-coated CoP nanocrystals by facile one-pot carbonization process. The as-prepared CoP@NPC-900 has a specific surface area of 979.67 m(2) g(-1) without activator and simultaneously exhibits excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance with a low overpotential of 181 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) and small Tafel slope of 59 mV dec(-1) in acid solution. In addition, density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate lower adsorption free energy and rapid electron transfer between CoP nanocrystals and N, P co-doped porous carbon (NPC) are key factors of improving the HER performance. Our research opens up a new use of BILs, as well as provides a facile strategy to promote practical application of transition metal phosphides for HER. @@@ [GRAPHICS] @@@ .