Eutectic Synthesis of High-Entropy Metal Phosphides for Electrocatalytic Water Splitting

ChemSusChem. 2020 Apr 21;13(8):2038-2042. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202000173. Epub 2020 Mar 3.

Abstract

High-entropy materials, a new class of alloys that incorporate five or more principal elements into single-phase crystal structures, have received considerable interest in materials science and engineering. Considering the tailored composition and disordered configuration, these high-entropy materials may arouse functional synergism towards electrocatalysis. Here, a new strategy for preparing high-entropy metal phosphides (HEMPs) was developed by a eutectic solvent method. The as-prepared HEMP possessed a single metal phosphide phase with up to five homogenously distributed metal components. The versatile application of high-entropy materials was highlighted by integrating the HEMP catalyst into a two-electrode configuration for electrocatalytic water splitting.

Keywords: electrochemistry; energy conversion; high entropy; metal phosphides; water splitting.