Fabrication of Porous Configurated Ni2P/Ni Foam Catalyst and its Boosted Properties for pH‐universal Hydrogen Evolution Reaction and Efficient Nitrate Reduction

Abstract Nickel phosphide (Ni 2 P) has been widely explored toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) for desirable durability and high performance. Tuning the electronic structures and morphologies of Ni 2 P plays a pivotal role in the improvement of HER performance. In this work, three Ni 2 P catalysts were fabricated by different strategies and their HER properties were compared. It was found that the bicontinuous porous structured Ni 2 P on Ni foam (Ni 2 P /NF−EHP) prepared using coupled electroless nickel‐phosphorus (Ni−P) plating, hydrothermal synthesis and low temperature phosphorization techniques, exhibits the best catalytic activity and a wide pH adaptability. The overpotential at 10 mA cm −2 and Tafel slope are 78 mV and 33 mV dec −1 in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 , those in 1 M PBS are 125 mV and 93 mV dec −1 , and 101 mV and 76 mV dec −1 in 1 M KOH. Additionally, the Ni 2 P/NF−EHP‐catalyzed HER process is also applicable for nitrate reduction with a remarkable removal efficiency of 92.6 %. This catalyst also exhibits a desirable durability both in HER and nitrate reduction. This work offers an efficient strategy to exploit compatible pH‐universal HER catalysts, explores the engineering application of HER process in nitrate reduction.