Development and characterization of NiMoP alloy coating for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media

The development of reasonable electrocatalysts with high proficiency at low cost is critical for the large-scale production of hydrogen by water splitting. NiMoP alloy coating has been proposed to be a promising alternative to noble metal-based electrocatalysts for water splitting. In this work, we successfully developed molybdenum incorporated NiP coating through chemical reduction method, and by tuning the composition of Mo, Ni, and P, a high charge delocalization is achieved on the surface of the coating. The incorporation of molybdenum into the NiP matrix effectively increases the number of active sites during the hydrogen evolution reaction. The NiMo0.02P coating exhibits a relatively small overpotential of 128 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 during HER. The kinetic parameters were evaluated based on Tafel plots and EIS measurements and the possible mechanism of HER was assumed. The coating exhibit excellent stability with no surface degradation even after long-term electrochemical studies. The NiMoP coating is promising in the respect of its application for large or irregular-shaped electrodes that are required for industrial applications. The synergism between Ni and Mo and the presence of nickel and molybdenum phosphide on the surface of coating results in catalyst with excellent application in HER.