Regulating the electronic structure of Ni₂P by one-step Co, N dual-doping for boosting electrocatalytic performance...

The development of efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and urea oxidation reaction (UOR) is critical for hydrogen production and wastewater purification. In this work, we propose a facile synthetic method for Co and N dual-doped Ni₂P directly grown on Ni foam (Co-Ni₂P-N/NF) using hydrothermal and annealing process. Simultaneous Co and N dual-doping into Ni₂P not only modifies the surface electronic structure, but also generates a multitude of active sites with high valence states, which are beneficial for improving electrocatalytic kinetics for both OER and UOR. As a result, the Co-Ni₂P-N/NF catalyst exhibits a low overpotential of 329 mV to deliver a current density of 100 mA cm^-2 for OER in alkaline solution, which is much lower than that of the state-of-the-art RuO₂ electrocatalyst. In addition, the urea-assisted water oxidation process exhibits a significant reduction of approximately 163 mV in the required potential at 100 mA cm^-2 compared to that of the OER, which highlights the remarkable potential of the prepared Co-Ni₂P-N/NF electrocatalyst in facilitating the purification of wastewater and hydrogen production with significantly lower energy consumption.