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Nitrogen-Doped Cobalt Diselenide with Cubic Phase Maintained for Enhanced Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution
Yiqiang Sun1,2, Xiuling Li3, Tao Zhang4
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Chemistry for Inorganic/Organic Hybrid Functionalized Materials, Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, Anhui, 230601, P. R. China.
Introducing nitrogen into transition metal chalcogenides (TMCs) enhances electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution (HER) without altering crystal structure. Phosphorus doping, however, causes instability, hindering HER performance.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Electrochemistry
- Catalysis
Background:
- Heteroatom incorporation is key to tuning electrocatalyst electronic structures for enhanced activity.
- Highly symmetric transition metal chalcogenides (HS-TMCs) often suffer lattice distortion and phase transitions upon doping, complicating structure-activity relationship studies.
- Unpredictable structural changes hinder the rational design of efficient electrocatalysts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of nitrogen and phosphorus doping on the structural stability and electrocatalytic activity of cubic CoSe2 for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER).
- To establish a stable doping strategy for HS-TMCs to promote electrocatalytic performance.
- To understand the impact of heteroatom-induced structural changes on HER activity.
Main Methods:
- Computational modeling and experimental synthesis of nitrogen-doped and phosphorus-doped CoSe2.
- Electrochemical characterization using techniques like cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry to evaluate HER performance.
- X-ray diffraction (XRD) and other structural analysis methods to assess phase stability and lattice distortion.
Main Results:
- Nitrogen incorporation into cubic CoSe2 maintained structural phase stability and significantly boosted electrocatalytic activity for HER.
- Phosphorus doping induced a phase transition from cubic CoSe2 to an orthorhombic phase.
- The phosphorus-doped CoSe2, in its orthorhombic phase, exhibited unstable performance for the HER.
Conclusions:
- Nitrogen doping offers a viable strategy to enhance HER activity in HS-TMCs by regulating electronic structure while preserving phase stability.
- Heteroatom choice is critical; nitrogen promotes stability and activity, whereas phosphorus leads to detrimental phase transitions.
- Stable doping of HS-TMCs is crucial for reliable electrocatalyst design and understanding fundamental structure-activity relationships in HER.
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