Simply constructing composite of highly dispersed Ag decorated porous nanosheets of CoO/CoP/Co2P with highly enhanced electrocatalytic activities for overall water splitting

In this work, highly dispersed Ag decorated two-dimensional (2D) CoO/CoP/Co2P porous nanosheets were prepared using hydrothermal method followed by partial phosphorization. Benefited from high electroconductivity of Ag, high active oxygen vacancies induced by Ag+ doping, synergistic effects of the multiple composites and more active sites exposed by 2D nanosheets, the fabricated catalysts have shown highly improved activities for cathodic, anodic and overall water electrolysis. As an optimum result, only 167 and 266 mV of overpotential for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and 1.58 V of cell voltage for water splitting was needed respectively in 1.0 M KOH to reach 10 mA cm−2 of current density. The catalyst also showed high stability and Faraday efficiency. The results confirm that the catalyst is competitive in benchmarked cases reported recently.