High-efficiency acidic electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution enhanced by encapsulation of heterojunction CoP–MoP nanoparticles in a nitrogen-doped 3D nanocarbon framework

The development of low-cost, high-performance transition metal phosphide electrocatalysts is essential for producing hydrogen from renewable energy sources. Here, we report a N-doped three-dimensional nanocarbon framework encapsulating heterojunction CoP–MoP nanoparticles. Due to the synergistic effect between the bimetals, electron transfer is enhanced at multiple heterogeneous junctions, resulting in highly efficient acid electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Additionally, the introduction of N-doped carbon material not only improves the conductivity of the catalyst, but also effectively prevents the aggregation of transition metal phosphide nanoparticles, thus exposing more active sites. Notably, CoP–MoP/NC demonstrates HER catalytic activity comparable to 20% Pt/C in a 0.5 M H2SO4 solution. Furthermore, it exhibits a significantly low overpotential and a small Tafel slope, measuring 105.2 mV and 79.7 mV dec−1, respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm−2. And the catalyst also shows excellent long-term durability, further highlighting its potential as a high-performance HER electrocatalyst.