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Recent Tendency on Transition-Metal Phosphide Electrocatalysts for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Alkaline Media
Seo Jeong Yoon1, Se Jung Lee1, Min Hui Kim1
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Nanoscale Environmental Sciences and Technology Institute, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksandae-ro, Iksan 54538, Jeonbuk, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Hydrogen energy is regarded as an auspicious future substitute to replace fossil fuels, due to its environmentally friendly characteristics and high energy density. In the pursuit of clean hydrogen production, there has been a significant focus on the advancement of effective electrocatalysts for the process of water splitting. Although noble metals like Pt, Ru, Pd and Ir are superb electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), they have limitations for large-scale applications, mainly high cost and low abundance. As a result, non-precious transition metals have emerged as promising candidates to replace their more expensive counterparts in various applications. This review focuses on recently developed transition metal phosphides (TMPs) electrocatalysts for the HER in alkaline media due to the cooperative effect between the phosphorus and transition metals. Finally, we discuss the challenges of TMPs for HER.
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