MOF‐Derived Copper Nitride/Phosphide Heterostructure Coated by Multi‐Doped Carbon as Electrocatalyst for Efficient Water Splitting and Neutral‐pH Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Efficient and robust electrocatalysts composed of earth‐abundant elements to replace noble metals is highly essential for cost‐effective production of hydrogen from water splitting. Herein, we demonstrate the fabrication of SO42− anions bridged MOF‐derived Cu3N−Cu3P heterostructure coated by ultrathin N, P, S‐tri‐doped carbon (NPSC) on nickel foam (Cu3N−Cu3P/NPSCNWs@NF) via an interface reconstruction strategy. The first‐principle simulation demonstrates that both Cu3N, Cu3P and NPSC own good electrical conductivity, suggesting these species can lead to efficient electrocatalytic performance. The remarkable features of high intrinsic conductivity and interfacial heterostructures at Cu3N−Cu3P/NPSCNWs@NF have ensured excellent water splitting electrocatalytic activity with a low potential of 1.54 V at 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH over 24 h, and additionally the resultant electrode exhibits impressive response for HER with an ultralow potential of 109 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in neutral‐pH media over 30 h.

Development of Cu3N electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline medium

“… S. no. Electrocatalyst Tafel slope (mV/dec) References 1 Cu 3 N-Copper foam 168 38 2 Cu 3 N-Nickel Foam 122.06 43 3 Cu 3 N-Cu 3 P-Nickel foam 69 44 4 Cu 3 N-PdO 122.83 45 5 Cu 3 N-NF 122 46 6 Cu 2 O-C 3 N 4 55.0 47 7 Cu3P-CoP nanowire 96 48 8 Cu 2 O 77.35 This work 9 Cu 3 N 63.28 This work …”

Metal nitride-based nanostructures for electrochemical and photocatalytic hydrogen production

“…Copper-based MN materials including their hybrids with bimetallic [ 237 ], oxynitride [ 237 ], carbonate hydroxides [ 238 ], and metal phosphides [ 239 ] have also proven to be efficient catalysts for HER. In one of the reports, it was demonstrated that the addition of Co-Ni carbonate hydroxides on Cu 3 N, which has a 3D hierarchical structure, significantly lowers the overpotential and the Tafel slope, demonstrating excellent HER activity.…”

A novel zinc sulfide impregnated carbon composite derived from zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 for sodium-ion hybrid solid-state flexible capacitors

“…17 Similarly, Cu-MOF and Ni-MOF were used to derived Cu 3 N−Cu 3 P heterostructure and Ni 3 N, respectively for HER application. 18,19 Li et al have worked on the utilization of MOFs for preparing carbon composites (Co-N x /C). 20 This homogeneous mixture of Co-N x and C exhibited good electrocatalytic activity toward OER.…”