Boosting Hydrogen Evolution Reaction via Electronic Coupling of Cerium Phosphate with Molybdenum Phosphide Nanobelts

Luyao Zhang; Minghao Hu; Huan Li; Bo Cao; Peng Jing; Baocang Liu; Rui Gao; Jun Zhang; Bin Liu

doi:10.1002/smll.202102413

Boosting Hydrogen Evolution Reaction via Electronic Coupling of Cerium Phosphate with Molybdenum Phosphide Nanobelts

Luyao Zhang
, Minghao Hu
, Huan Li
, Bo Cao
, Peng Jing
, Baocang Liu^*
, Rui Gao^*
, Jun Zhang^*
, Bin Liu^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) is regarded as one of the most promising alternatives to noble-metal based electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its similar d-band electronic structure to noble metals and tunable features associated with phase and composition. However, it still remains a great challenge to construct MoP electrocatalysts with abundant active sites that possess ideal H binding strength to promote catalytic performance. In this work, it is found that by anchoring a rare earth compound, cerium phosphate (CePO₄) on MoP (CePO₄/MoP), the stabilized Ce³⁺ in CePO₄ can significantly boost the formation of oxygen vacancies in ceria (CeO₂) in situ formed on CePO₄ surface during HER, which effectively regulates the d-band electronic density-of-states of MoP, increases the numbers of active sites, and promotes the vectorial electron transfer, therefore greatly enhancing the HER performance of MoP. The optimized CePO₄/MoP/carbon cloth (CC) electrocatalyst exhibits a significantly improved HER performance with an overpotential of 48 mV at 10 mA cm⁻² and a Tafel slope of 38 mV dec⁻¹, about two times better than the HER performance of MoP catalyst without CePO₄ (with an overpotential >80 mV dec⁻¹ at 10 mA cm⁻²), very close to commercial Pt/C catalyst. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH

Original language	English
Article number	2102413
Journal	Small
Volume	17
Issue number	40
Online published	7 Sept 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202102413
Publication status	Published - 7 Oct 2021
Externally published	Yes

Funding

L.Z. and M.H. contributed equally to this work. This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21971129, 21961022, 21661023, 21802076, and 21962013), the 111 Project (D20033), the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China (2018BS05007), the Program of Higher-level Talents of IMU (21300-5185111 and 21300-5195109), and the Cooperation Project of the State Key Laboratory of Baiyun Obo Rare Earth Resource Research and Comprehensive Utilization (2017Z1950), and the Singapore Ministry of Education (Tier 1: RG4/20 and Tier 2: MOET2EP10120-0002).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy

Research Keywords

electronic coupling
H binding strength
hydrogen evolution reaction
molybdenum phosphide
oxygen vacancy

Access Output

10.1002/smll.202102413

Other Access Options

Check CityUHK Library

Permanent Link

Right click to copy link

Cite this

@article{9d0fa8a5342a4e3c9b8c1c798142a8f5,

title = "Boosting Hydrogen Evolution Reaction via Electronic Coupling of Cerium Phosphate with Molybdenum Phosphide Nanobelts",

abstract = "Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) is regarded as one of the most promising alternatives to noble-metal based electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its similar d-band electronic structure to noble metals and tunable features associated with phase and composition. However, it still remains a great challenge to construct MoP electrocatalysts with abundant active sites that possess ideal H binding strength to promote catalytic performance. In this work, it is found that by anchoring a rare earth compound, cerium phosphate (CePO4) on MoP (CePO4/MoP), the stabilized Ce3+ in CePO4 can significantly boost the formation of oxygen vacancies in ceria (CeO2) in situ formed on CePO4 surface during HER, which effectively regulates the d-band electronic density-of-states of MoP, increases the numbers of active sites, and promotes the vectorial electron transfer, therefore greatly enhancing the HER performance of MoP. The optimized CePO4/MoP/carbon cloth (CC) electrocatalyst exhibits a significantly improved HER performance with an overpotential of 48 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 38 mV dec−1, about two times better than the HER performance of MoP catalyst without CePO4 (with an overpotential >80 mV dec−1 at 10 mA cm−2), very close to commercial Pt/C catalyst. {\textcopyright} 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH",

keywords = "electronic coupling, H binding strength, hydrogen evolution reaction, molybdenum phosphide, oxygen vacancy",

author = "Luyao Zhang and Minghao Hu and Huan Li and Bo Cao and Peng Jing and Baocang Liu and Rui Gao and Jun Zhang and Bin Liu",

year = "2021",

month = oct,

day = "7",

doi = "10.1002/smll.202102413",

language = "English",

volume = "17",

journal = "Small",

issn = "1613-6810",

publisher = "Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH",

number = "40",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Boosting Hydrogen Evolution Reaction via Electronic Coupling of Cerium Phosphate with Molybdenum Phosphide Nanobelts

AU - Zhang, Luyao

AU - Hu, Minghao

AU - Li, Huan

AU - Cao, Bo

AU - Jing, Peng

AU - Liu, Baocang

AU - Gao, Rui

AU - Zhang, Jun

AU - Liu, Bin

PY - 2021/10/7

Y1 - 2021/10/7

N2 - Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) is regarded as one of the most promising alternatives to noble-metal based electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its similar d-band electronic structure to noble metals and tunable features associated with phase and composition. However, it still remains a great challenge to construct MoP electrocatalysts with abundant active sites that possess ideal H binding strength to promote catalytic performance. In this work, it is found that by anchoring a rare earth compound, cerium phosphate (CePO4) on MoP (CePO4/MoP), the stabilized Ce3+ in CePO4 can significantly boost the formation of oxygen vacancies in ceria (CeO2) in situ formed on CePO4 surface during HER, which effectively regulates the d-band electronic density-of-states of MoP, increases the numbers of active sites, and promotes the vectorial electron transfer, therefore greatly enhancing the HER performance of MoP. The optimized CePO4/MoP/carbon cloth (CC) electrocatalyst exhibits a significantly improved HER performance with an overpotential of 48 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 38 mV dec−1, about two times better than the HER performance of MoP catalyst without CePO4 (with an overpotential >80 mV dec−1 at 10 mA cm−2), very close to commercial Pt/C catalyst. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH

AB - Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) is regarded as one of the most promising alternatives to noble-metal based electrocatalysts for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to its similar d-band electronic structure to noble metals and tunable features associated with phase and composition. However, it still remains a great challenge to construct MoP electrocatalysts with abundant active sites that possess ideal H binding strength to promote catalytic performance. In this work, it is found that by anchoring a rare earth compound, cerium phosphate (CePO4) on MoP (CePO4/MoP), the stabilized Ce3+ in CePO4 can significantly boost the formation of oxygen vacancies in ceria (CeO2) in situ formed on CePO4 surface during HER, which effectively regulates the d-band electronic density-of-states of MoP, increases the numbers of active sites, and promotes the vectorial electron transfer, therefore greatly enhancing the HER performance of MoP. The optimized CePO4/MoP/carbon cloth (CC) electrocatalyst exhibits a significantly improved HER performance with an overpotential of 48 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 38 mV dec−1, about two times better than the HER performance of MoP catalyst without CePO4 (with an overpotential >80 mV dec−1 at 10 mA cm−2), very close to commercial Pt/C catalyst. © 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH

KW - electronic coupling

KW - H binding strength

KW - hydrogen evolution reaction

KW - molybdenum phosphide

KW - oxygen vacancy

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85114357797

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85114357797&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1002/smll.202102413

DO - 10.1002/smll.202102413

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

C2 - 34494360

SN - 1613-6810

VL - 17

JO - Small

JF - Small

IS - 40

M1 - 2102413

ER -

Boosting Hydrogen Evolution Reaction via Electronic Coupling of Cerium Phosphate with Molybdenum Phosphide Nanobelts

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Research Keywords

Access Output

Other Access Options

Permanent Link

Other Files and Links

Fingerprint

Cite this