Preparation of self-supported Mo-doped hierarchical porous Ni–P toward highly efficient hydrogen evolution catalysis

In this contribution, the bulk self-supporting Ni–P catalysts with multistage pore structure were successfully optimized through the addition of Mo into precursors, in which Mo elements were mainly existed in the form of MoNi and MoNiP phases. After the adjustment of pore structure by Mo addition, the dealloyed CNMP-1 (2 at. % Mo) and CNMP-2 (8 at. % Mo) products were found to deliver the rather low overpotentials as 192 mV and 160 mV at current density of 10 mA cm−2, accompanied by Tafel slopes as 105.8 mV dec−1 and 98.2 mV dec−1 in 1 M KOH aqueous solution, respectively. In addition, CNMP-2 catalyst could exhibit a remarkably excellent stability after 100 h of continuous test with 2000 CV cycles. Based on the structural analysis, it was supposed that the excellent electrocatalytic performance of Ni–P skeleton catalysts might be attributed to the unique multistage pore structure, the synergetic effect between NixP and MoxNiyP, and the accelerated electron transport in the skeletons.