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Flexible direct synthesis of phosphorus-rich CoP 3 on carbon black and its examination in hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Flexible direct synthesis of phosphorus-rich CoP 3 on carbon black and its examination in hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis

Ishanka A. Liyanage, Hannah Barmore and Edward G. Gillan
Energy advances, Vol.2(11), pp.1831-1842
2023
DOI: 10.1039/D3YA00295K
url
https://doi.org/10.1039/D3YA00295KView
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

In contrast to metal-rich cobalt phosphides, phosphorus-rich CoP 3 is less studied as a hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst, though it has distinct polyphosphide structural features and electronic properties that can be useful in facilitating proton reduction. While bulk crystalline solids are ideal surfaces for electrocatalytic studies, methods to disperse active catalysts on inexpensive high surface area supports can lead to improved HER activity with less catalyst. This paper describes a straightforward two-step procedure to produce a series of crystalline CoP 3 particles supported on conducting carbon black powder. Anhydrous CoCl 2 was deposited onto carbon black in various amounts from a methanol solution. The dried CoCl 2 /C products were directly reacted with elemental phosphorus in an ampoule at 500 °C. These reactions produce crystalline CoP 3 /C with nominally 5–25 mol% of CoP 3 on carbon black. These CoP 3 /C composites possess a ∼3 to 10 times higher surface area (∼11–35 m 2 g −1 ) versus similarly synthesized bulk CoP 3 . The CoP 3 crystallites grow in aggregated form with carbon black nanoparticles. The HER electrocatalytic behavior of these composites in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 was evaluated and all CoP 3 /C composites were HER active and require only applied potentials near −95 mV to achieve 10 mA cm −2 current densities. The lower content CoP 3 catalyst particles dispersed on carbon black show similar HER activity to bulk CoP 3 . These CoP 3 /C composites are stable in acid and show a high degree of electrocatalytic stability in extended time HER electrocatalytic experiments.
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