Design and Synthesis of Highly Active Al-Ni-P Foam Electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

© 2015 American Chemical Society. An effective method to boost the electrocatalytic activity of nickel phosphides in H2 evolution reaction is reported. The method took advantage of density functional theory calculations that allowed the design of a highly active material based on the combination of d-metal with p-metal within a phosphide structure. Furthermore, the principle is proven experimentally through successful synthesis of self-supported ternary Al-Ni-P foam electrocatalyst by alloying of Ni and Al followed by the gas transport phosphorization reaction. As a cathode for H2 evolution reaction in acidic electrolyte, Al-Ni-P significantly outperforms pure Ni-P, and it has an exchange current density of 0.6 mA/cm2 and a Tafel slope of 65 mV/decade.status: publishe