Bifunctional V-doped NiCoP nanowires for high-efficiency electrolysis

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Catalysis

Background:

• Efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts are crucial for overall water splitting in alkaline media.
• Developing cost-effective and high-performance catalysts remains a key challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and evaluate vanadium-doped NiCoP one-dimensional nanowire catalysts for overall water splitting.
• To investigate the effect of vanadium doping on the electrocatalytic performance of NiCoP.

Main Methods:

• Hydrothermal synthesis and chemical vapor deposition were employed to create V-doped NiCoP nanowires.
• Electrocatalytic performance was assessed using techniques like linear sweep voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Main Results:

• The NCP-2 sample exhibited excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity with a low overpotential (74.3 mV at 10 mA cm⁻²) and Tafel slope (83.8 mV dec⁻¹).
• The catalyst also showed promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) performance with an overpotential of 280 mV at 20 mA cm⁻².
• The V-doped NiCoP nanowire arrays achieved a low cell voltage of 1.55 V at 10 mA cm⁻² for overall water splitting.

Conclusions:

• Moderate vanadium doping enhances the density of electrochemically active sites and modulates the electronic structure of NiCoP, leading to superior bifunctional electrocatalytic activity.
• The synthesized V-doped NiCoP nanowire catalysts show significant potential for applications in sustainable energy systems, particularly for overall water splitting.