A Green Synthesis Strategy for Cobalt Phosphide Deposited on N, P Co-Doped Graphene for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution

The exploitation of electrocatalysts with high activity and durability for the hydrogen evolution reaction is significant but also challenging for future energy systems. Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have attracted a lot of attention due to their effective activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction, but the complicated preparation of metal phosphides remains a bottleneck. In this study, a green fabrication method is designed and proposed to construct N, P co-doped graphene (NPG)-supported cobalt phosphide (Co₂P) nanoparticles by using DNA as both N and P sources. Thanks to the synergistic effect of NPG and Co₂P, the Co₂P/NPG shows effective activity with a small overpotential of 144 mV and a low Tafel slope of 72 mV dec^-1 for the hydrogen evolution reaction. This study describes a successful green synthesis strategy for the preparation of high-performance TMPs.