Ni2P/C nanosheets derived from oriented growth Ni-MOF on nickel foam for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Tuning the structural features that furnish electrochemically active sites with improved kinetic diffusion can provide an alternative way to achieve high performance of electrocatalysis. Here, we report a nano-structure of Ni2P/C(NPC) nano-sheets supported on nickel foam (NF) that is prepared by sequenced nitrogen pyrolysis and gas phosphatization of Ni-MOF nanosheets. Initially, the passivated surface of nickel foam facilitates the oriented growth of Ni-MOF nanosheets, which is crucial for the maintenance of structure stability during the subsequent pyrolysis and phosphatization treatment. As a result, more catalytic active sites are exposed than the non-oriented NPC catalysts and diffusion kinetics is favorable. Consequently, the obtained composite can exhibit excellent hydrogen evolution catalytic activity in an alkaline electrolyte. For hydrogen evolution reaction, a current density of 10 mA cm−2 is provided at an overpotential of 97 mV and its onset overpotential is only 29 mV. Meanwhile, good morphology and catalytic activity can be maintained after 12 h of stability testing. This excellent performance is believed to be the result of NPC nanosheet structure on NF derived from the facet-oriented control of pristine Ni-MOF, enabling excellent reaction kinetics.