Effect of High-Valence State W Doping on the Catalytic Activity of NiFe Phosphides for Overall Water Splitting

Abstract

Abstract: In recent years, the development of photovoltaic assisted electrocatalytic (PV-EC) water splitting has emerged as a critical issue in achieving carbon neutrality through green hydrogen evolution. However, traditional electrocatalysts do not meet the high solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency requirements for PV-EC systems. Therefore, it is crucial to obtain electrocatalysts with low cost and reaction overpotential. In this work, transition metal W with high valence states was employed to dope NiFe phosphide, and NiFeW ternary phosphides were prepared by a simple one-step electrodeposition method. The results indicate that NiFeW phosphide has excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activities. Furthermore, when used as a bifunctional electrocatalyst, NiFeW phosphide shows a 51 mV reduction in overpotential at a current density of 10 mA/cm² compared to NiFe phosphide sample. Finally, NiFeW phosphide and a-Si∶H/a-SiGe∶H/a-SiGe∶H solar cell are employed as bifunctional electrocatalyst and driving source, respectively. The PV-EC devices achieve above 7% theoretical STH efficiency, which is significant for practical applications of solar to hydrogen devices.

Key words: electrocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen evolution, bifunctional electrocatalyst, PV-EC, solar cell, transition metal phosphide, doping

CLC Number:

ZHANG Yiqing, LIANG Junhui, FAN Haoyang, CHEN Da, CHEN Huayu, HUANG Yuexiang, YAO Xin, QIN Laishun. Effect of High-Valence State W Doping on the Catalytic Activity of NiFe Phosphides for Overall Water Splitting[J]. Journal of Synthetic Crystals, 2023, 52(8): 1491-1499.

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