Local electronic structure engineering of vanadium-doped nickel phosphide nanosheet arrays for efficient hydrogen evolution

Local electronic structure engineering is an effective approach for optimizing the catalytic performance of electrocatalysts. Herein, a dual-phase vanadium-doped nickel phosphide (NiVxP) catalyst supported on nickel foam (NF) was synthesized via a successive hydrothermal and phosphorization process with interconnected nanosheet structures and homogeneous distributions. The catalyst's stable phase and strong adhesion to the substrate ensure good electrochemical stability. The incorporation of V effectively promotes initial H2O adsorption and H* formation, leading to a lower overpotential. As a result, the fabricated NiVxP@NF demonstrates favorable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity and stability, with only 85 mV overpotential needed to reach 10 mA·cm−2 and showing no significant increase in the overpotential during the long-term 78-hour stability test.