Amorphous Nickel Hydroxide Shell on Ni8P3 Nanorods for Boosted Highly Stable Overall Water Splitting at High Current

Developing highly active, highly stable, and cheap electrocatalysts for water splitting is of great significance for hydrogen production. Herein, we report an amorphous Ni(OH)₂-clothed transition Ni₈P₃ catalyst, in which the amorphous Ni(OH)₂ shell provides catalytic active sites and serves as a proton conductive encapsulation layer to ensure efficient proton supply to the active Ni₈P₃ sites. As expected, the Ni₈P₃@Ni(OH)₂ catalyst exhibits significant water decomposition performance at low and high current densities of 10, 100, and 1000 mA cm^-2 at 1.45, 1.71, and 2.21 V, respectively, which is comparable to those of commercial electrocatalysts. In particular, the prepared Ni₈P₃@Ni(OH)₂ electrodes possess exceptional long-term durability (200 h) at high current (over 1 A). The significantly improved water-splitting activity and durability in alkaline medium are expected to make them attractive catalyst materials to produce renewable chemical fuels.