title: Carbon-Coated Nickel Phosphide Nanosheets as Efficient Dual-Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting.
abstract: Low-cost and efficient electrocatalysts for overall water splitting are in high demand for a wide range of applications across renewable and clean energy. Here, we report a simple one-step synthesis of a three-dimensional (3D) carbon-coated Ni8P3nanosheet array as bifunctional catalyst for both hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and oxygen evolution reactions (OER). The nanosheet array possesses low overpotentials, high current densities, and small Tafel slopes in both HER and OER and shows high electrocatalytic activities and long-term stability. The carbon layer with high electric conductivity serves not only as a protective layer to prevent Ni8P3dissolution but also as an active layer to decrease the electrocatalysis overpotential. The nanosheet array has HER outstanding activity in both acid and alkaline media. Its superior performance in OER can be due to the synergistic interaction at the Ni8P3/NiOxheterojunction. Furthermore, cell voltage as low as 1.65 V can achieve 10 mA cm-2current density for full water splitting in an alkaline water electrolyzer, indicating potential application of C@ Ni8P3as bifunctional catalyst for clean and renewable energy utilization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NUANCE Center, Northwestern University , Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.|School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NUANCE Center, Northwestern University , Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Qianqian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Cheng-Yan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhen
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NUANCE Center, Northwestern University , Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Jinsong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NUANCE Center, Northwestern University , Evanston, Illinois 60208, United States.
authors.forename: Vinayak P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Dravid
keywords: carbon coating; nanosheets array; nickel phosphide; overall water splitting; synergistic effect