Highly Ordered Mesoporous Bimetallic Phosphides as\nEfficient Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysts

Abstract

Oxygen evolution from water using\nearth-abundant transition-metal-based\ncatalysts is of importance for the commercialization of water electrolyzers.\nHerein, we report a hard templating method to synthesize transition\nmetal phosphides with uniform shape and size. By virtue of the structural\nfeature, synergistic effects among metals, and the in situ formed\nactive species, the as-prepared phosphides with optimized composition\npresent enhanced electrocatalytic performance toward the oxygen evolution\nreaction in alkaline solution. In detail, the catalyst with optimized\ncomposition reaches a current density of 10 mA/cm² at a\npotential of 1.511 V vs a reversible hydrogen electrode, which is\nmuch lower than that of a commercial RuO₂ catalyst. Our\nwork offers a new strategy to optimize the catalysts for water splitting\nby controlling the morphology and composition.