CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, iChEM (the Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) , Hefei, Anhui Province 230026, China.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Jan 25;9(3):2240-2248. doi: 10.1021/acsami.6b10983. Epub 2017 Jan 9.
Hydrogen is essential to many industrial processes and could play an important role as an ideal clean energy carrier for future energy supply. Herein, we report for the first time the growth of crystalline CuP phosphide nanosheets on conductive nickel foam (CuP@NF) for electrocatalytic and visible light-driven overall water splitting. Our results show that the CuP@NF electrode can be used as an efficient Janus catalyst for both the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). For OER catalysis, a current density of 10 mA/cm requires an overpotential of only ∼320 mV and the slope of the Tafel plot is as low as 54 mV/dec in 1.0 M KOH. For HER catalysis, the overpotential is only ∼105 mV to achieve a catalytic current density of 10 mA cm. Moreover, overall water splitting can be achieved in a water electrolyzer based on the CuP@NF electrode, which showed a catalytic current density of 10 mA/cm under an applied voltage of ∼1.67 V. The same current density can also be obtained using a silicon solar cell under ∼1.70 V for both the HER and the OER. This new Janus CuP@NF electrode is made of inexpensive and nonprecious metal-based materials, which opens new possibilities based on copper to exploit overall water splitting for hydrogen production. To the best of our knowledge, such high performance of a copper-based water oxidation and overall water splitting catalyst has not been reported to date.
氢气是许多工业过程所必需的，并且可能作为未来能源供应的理想清洁能源载体发挥重要作用。在此，我们首次报道了在导电镍泡沫（CuP@NF）上生长的结晶 CuP 磷化物纳米片，用于电催化和可见光驱动的整体水分解。我们的结果表明，CuP@NF 电极可用作高效的 Janus 催化剂，用于氧析出反应（OER）和析氢反应（HER）。对于 OER 催化，在 1.0 M KOH 中仅需要约 320 mV 的过电势即可达到 10 mA/cm 的电流密度，塔菲尔斜率低至 54 mV/dec。对于 HER 催化，仅需约 105 mV 的过电势即可达到 10 mA cm 的催化电流密度。此外，基于 CuP@NF 电极的水电解槽可以实现整体水分解，在施加约 1.67 V 的电压下，催化电流密度为 10 mA/cm。在相同的电流密度下，硅太阳能电池在约 1.70 V 下用于 HER 和 OER 也可以获得相同的电流密度。这种新型 Janus CuP@NF 电极由廉价且非贵金属基材料制成，为基于铜的整体水分解制氢开辟了新的可能性。据我们所知，到目前为止，还没有报道过这种基于铜的水氧化和整体水分解催化剂具有如此高的性能。
