N-doped TiO2 nanotube arrays with uniformly embedded Co x P nanoparticles for high-efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction

Yong Wei; Jijiang Fu; Hao Song; Ben Zhang; Chaoran Pi; Lu Xia; Xuming Zhang; Biao Gao; Yang Zheng; Paul K Chu

doi:10.1039/c9ra01184f

N-doped TiO₂ nanotube arrays with uniformly embedded Co _x P nanoparticles for high-efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction

RSC Adv. 2019 Apr 15;9(21):11676-11682. doi: 10.1039/c9ra01184f. eCollection 2019 Apr 12.

Authors

Yong Wei¹, Jijiang Fu¹, Hao Song^{1

2}, Ben Zhang¹, Chaoran Pi¹, Lu Xia¹, Xuming Zhang¹, Biao Gao^{1

2}, Yang Zheng¹, Paul K Chu²

Affiliations

¹ The State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy, Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wuhan University of Science and Technology Wuhan 430081 China xumzhang@wust.edu.cn yzheng@wust.edu.cn.
² Department of Physics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong Tat Chee Avenue Kowloon Hong Kong China.

Abstract

Efficient and stable non-precious metal based electrocatalysts are crucial to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in renewable energy conversion. Herein, Co _x P nanoparticles (NPs) are uniformly embedded in N-doped TiO₂ nanotube arrays (Co _x P/N-TiO₂ NTAs) by low-temperature phosphorization of the precursor of metallic cobalt NPs embedded in N-doped TiO₂ NTAs (Co/N-TiO₂ NTAs) which were fabricated by phase separation of CoTiO₃ NTAs in ammonia. Owing to the abundant exposed surface active sites of Co _x P NPs, tight contact between the Co _x P NPs and TiO₂ NTAs, fast electron transfer in N-doped TiO₂, and channels for effective diffusion of ions and H₂ bubbles in the tubular structure, the Co _x P/N-TiO₂ NTAs have excellent electrocatalytic activity in HER exemplified by a low overpotential of 180 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 and small Tafel slope of 51 mV dec^-1 in 0.5 M H₂SO₄. The catalyst also shows long-term cycling stability and is a promising non-precious metal catalyst for HER.