Premium
Identifying Catalytic Active Sites of Trimolybdenum Phosphide (Mo 3 P) for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution
Author(s) -
Kondori Alireza,
Esmaeilirad Mohammadreza,
Baskin Artem,
Song Boao,
Wei Jialiang,
Chen Wei,
Segre Carlo U.,
ShahbazianYassar Reza,
Prendergast David,
Asadi Mohammad
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201900516
Subject(s) - overpotential , phosphide , electrocatalyst , catalysis , materials science , exchange current density , molybdenum , electrochemistry , density functional theory , gibbs free energy , noble metal , hydrogen , inorganic chemistry , chemical engineering , monolayer , nanotechnology , metal , chemistry , thermodynamics , metallurgy , computational chemistry , electrode , physics , engineering , biochemistry , organic chemistry , tafel equation
Solid‐state electrocatalysis plays a crucial role in the development of renewable energy to reshape current and future energy needs. However, finding an inexpensive and highly active catalyst to replace precious metals remains a big challenge for this technology. Here, tri‐molybdenum phosphide (Mo 3 P) is found as a promising nonprecious metal and earth‐abundant candidate with outstanding catalytic properties that can be used for electrocatalytic processes. The catalytic performance of Mo 3 P nanoparticles is tested in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The results indicate an onset potential of as low as 21 mV, H 2 formation rate, and exchange current density of 214.7 µmol s −1 g −1 cat (at only 100 mV overpotential) and 279.07 µA cm −2 , respectively, which are among the closest values yet observed to platinum. Combined atomic‐scale characterizations and computational studies confirm that high density of molybdenum (Mo) active sites at the surface with superior intrinsic electronic properties are mainly responsible for the remarkable HER performance. The density functional theory calculation results also confirm that the exceptional performance of Mo 3 P is due to neutral Gibbs free energy (Δ G H* ) of the hydrogen (H) adsorption at above 1/2 monolayer (ML) coverage of the (110) surface, exceeding the performance of existing non‐noble metal catalysts for HER.