1. Colloidal Ni2- : XCoxP nanocrystals for the hydrogen evolution reaction
- Author
-
Michaela Meyns, Jordi Llorca, Xiaoting Yu, Junfeng Liu, Jordi Arbiol, Junshan Li, Jérémy David, Alexey Shavel, Andreu Cabot, Zhenxing Wang, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria Química, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. NEMEN - Nanoenginyeria de materials aplicats a l'energia, Generalitat de Catalunya, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Institución Catalana de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados, China Scholarship Council, Liu, Junfeng [0000-0003-3164-6472], Wang, Zhenxing [0000-0001-5083-0975], David, Jeremy [0000-0003-3219-149X], Shavel, Alexey [0000-0002-3995-0391], Arbiol, Jordi [0000-0002-0695-1726], Meyns, Michaela [0000-0003-2476-9001], Cabot, Andreu [0000-0002-7533-3251], Liu, Junfeng, Wang, Zhenxing, David, Jeremy, Shavel, Alexey, Arbiol, Jordi, Meyns, Michaela, and Cabot, Andreu
- Subjects
Materials science ,Nucleation ,02 engineering and technology ,Overpotential ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,law.invention ,Metal ,symbols.namesake ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Hydrogen evolution reactions ,Enginyeria química [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] ,law ,General Materials Science ,Crystallization ,Triphenyl phosphite ,Nanocrystal (NCs) ,Phosphorus sources ,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment ,Scalable approach ,General Chemistry ,Hidrogen ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,0104 chemical sciences ,3. Good health ,Gibbs free energy ,Amorphous solid ,Nanocrystals ,chemistry ,Chemical engineering ,Long term stability ,Electrocatalytic activity ,visual_art ,Hydrogen adsorption ,symbols ,visual_art.visual_art_medium ,0210 nano-technology ,Ternary operation ,Hydrogen ,Nanocristalls - Abstract
A cost-effective and scalable approach was developed to produce monodisperse Ni2−xCoxP nanocrystals (NCs) with composition tuned over the entire range (0 ≤ x ≤ 2). Ni2−xCoxP NCs were synthesized using low-cost, stable and low-toxicity triphenyl phosphite (TPP) as a phosphorus source, metal chlorides as metal precursors and hexadecylamine (HDA) as a ligand. The synthesis involved the nucleation of amorphous Ni–P and its posterior crystallization and simultaneous incorporation of Co. The composition, size and morphology of the Ni2−xCoxP NCs could be controlled simply by varying the ratio of Ni and Co precursors and the amounts of TPP and HDA. Ternary Ni2−xCoxP-based electrocatalysts exhibited enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) compared to binary phosphides. In particular, NiCoP electrocatalysts displayed the lowest overpotential of 97 mV at J = 10 mA cm−2 and an excellent long-term stability. DFT calculations of the Gibbs free energy for hydrogen adsorption at the surface of Ni2−xCoxP NCs showed NiCoP to have the most appropriate composition to optimize this parameter within the whole Ni2−xCoxP series. However, the hydrogen adsorption energy was demonstrated not to be the only parameter controlling the HER activity in Ni2−xCoxP., J. David and J. Arbiol acknowledge funding from Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 327 and the Spanish MINECO project VALPEC (ENE2017-85087-C3). ICN2 acknowledges support from the Severo Ochoa Programme (SEV-2013-0295) and is funded by the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya. J. David has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 665919. J. Llorca is a Serra Hunter Fellow and is grateful to the ICREA Academia program and grants MINECO/FEDER ENE2015-63969-R and GC 2017 SGR 128. J. Liu, J. Li and X. Yu thank the China Scholarship Council for scholarship support. M. Meyns acknowledges a Juan de la Cierva formación grant by the Spanish MINECO.
- Published
- 2021