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Porous Co–Mo phosphide nanotubes: an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution

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Abstract

The construction of efficient and low-cost bimetallic phosphide catalysts for hydrogen evolution is still in challenge. In this work, a series of porous Co–Mo phosphide nanotubes which are synthesized via in situ phosphidation process of CoMoO4 nanorods precursor at different phosphatization temperature have been used for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and N2 adsorption–desorption experiments were used to characterize the as-synthesized Co–Mo phosphide nanotubes. Results indicate that the phosphatization temperature is the key factor in the formation process of tube-like structure. The possible formation mechanism of Co–Mo phosphide nanotubes was further proposed. Additionally, the as-synthesized CoMoP-600 nanotubes displayed the highest HER catalytic performance and long-time durability in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution. The high catalytic performance of CoMoP-600 catalyst may be attributed to the favorable composition and the large surface area. This study shines a light in the application of bimetallic catalysts for the HER and provides us a new way to design and synthesize porous hollow tube-like structure materials.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (16CX06010A, 14CX05037A and 15CX05045A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), 66 West Changjiang Road, Qingdao, Shandong, 266580, China

    Yan Lin, Ming Liu, Yuan Pan & Jun Zhang

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yuan Pan

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Correspondence to Yuan Pan or Jun Zhang.

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Lin, Y., Liu, M., Pan, Y. et al. Porous Co–Mo phosphide nanotubes: an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution. J Mater Sci 52, 10406–10417 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1204-5

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