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In this paper, a novel Pt/CoP/C photo-electro synergistic catalyst was successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal method combined with phosphorus doping treatment. The addition of Vulcan XC-72R is in favor of effectively preventing agglomeration of active catalytic sites, resulting in more uniform and smaller Pt and CoP nanoparticles. The as-obtained Pt/CoP/C shows excellent photo-electro catalytic performance for the HER with simulated solar light irradiation. The optimal hydrogen production is 5384.18 mmol h−1 g−1, which is obviously higher than that of the commercial catalyst (20 wt% Pt/C: 4608.52 mmol h−1 g−1). The research results show that introducing cobalt phosphide into the Pt catalyst can improve the electrocatalytic activity and stability for the HER; in particular, the existence of Co3O4 in Pt/CoP/C leads to an efficient photo-electro catalysis under irradiation, which significantly improves the catalytic activity of Pt. The results above provide a novel strategy for the rational design of cost-effective Pt-based composites towards a fast HER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catalysts with high catalytic activity and low cost are extremely significant for hydrogen production by water cracking. In this work, through simple electrospinning and carbonization methods, Ru with excellent catalytic activity is dispersed onto Fe4C to form Ru–Fe4C nanoparticles loaded on N-doped carbon nanofibers (Ru–Fe4C/NCNF), so that Ru can expose more active sites and thus improve HER catalytic activity. Meanwhile, the addition of low-cost Fe can reduce the use of noble metal Ru, thereby reducing the catalyst cost. On the other hand, the prepared Ru–Fe4C/NCNF can be used as a self-supporting working electrode and shows good stability. The experimental results show that the prepared Ru–Fe4C/NCNF can drive a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with only 106 mV in 1 M KOH, and more importantly, only 254 mV can produce a current density of 100 mA cm−2. At the same time, it shows excellent stability after continuously working for 100 h at a current density of 100 mA cm−2. This work provides a new thought to synthesize economical catalysts with high catalytic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing noble-metal-free bifunctional electrocatalysts at an effective cost and with a high catalytic ability for hydrogen production via water-splitting is imperative, although a great bottleneck remains. Herein, we present a plasma engraving strategy to synthesize N-doped CoFeS on cobalt foam with a multi-interface and defect hierarchical structure. The N-doped CoFeS was synthesized using an ion exchange method to prepare the CoFe LDH precursor, followed by sulphidation and plasma-assisted engraving in nitrogen gas. The N-doped CoFeS requires an overpotential of 230 mV for the OER and 26 mV for the HER to reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2. It also shows an excellent catalytic activity towards overall water splitting, which requires a low voltage of 1.61 and 1.80 V to achieve a current density of 10 and 50 mA cm−2, respectively, in 1 M KOH. The super-catalytic properties can be attributed to the interface and defect structure, which induces a high intrinsic activity, a superior transfer coefficient, and abundant active sites. This work presents a novel approach to prepare noble-metal-free electrocatalyst with plenty of interface and defect sites for overall water splitting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]