Cooperative Boron and Vanadium Doping of Nickel Phosphides for Hydrogen Evolution in Alkaline and Anion Exchange Membrane Water/Seawater Electrolyzers |
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Authors: | Tingwen Zhao Shuhao Wang Chen Jia Chengli Rong Zhen Su Kamran Dastafkan Qiang Zhang Chuan Zhao |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Chemistry, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052 Australia;2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Reaction Engineering and Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084 China |
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Abstract: | Developing low-cost and high-performance transition metal-based electrocatalysts is crucial for realizing sustainable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline media. Here, a cooperative boron and vanadium co-doped nickel phosphide electrode (B, V-Ni2P) is developed to regulate the intrinsic electronic configuration of Ni2P and promote HER processes. Experimental and theoretical results reveal that V dopants in B, V-Ni2P greatly facilitate the dissociation of water, and the synergistic effect of B and V dopants promotes the subsequent desorption of the adsorbed hydrogen intermediates. Benefiting from the cooperativity of both dopants, the B, V-Ni2P electrocatalyst requires a low overpotential of 148 mV to attain a current density of ?100 mA cm?2 with excellent durability. The B, V-Ni2P is applied as the cathode in both alkaline water electrolyzers (AWEs) and anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs). Remarkably, the AEMWE delivers a stable performance to achieve 500 and 1000 mA cm?2 current densities at a cell voltage of 1.78 and 1.92 V, respectively. Furthermore, the developed AWEs and AEMWEs also demonstrate excellent performance for overall seawater electrolysis. |
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Keywords: | anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers cooperative-doping hydrogen evolution reactions nickel phosphides |
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