Nickel Foam-Supported FeP Encapsulated in N, P Co-Doped Carbon Matrix for Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) show great potential as catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). FeP stands out as an efficient and cost-effective non-noble metal-based HER catalyst. However, FeP tends to aggregate and suffer from instability during the reaction. To tackle these challenges, we developed an efficient and straightforward approach to load metal-organic framework-derived N/P co-doped carbon-encapsulated FeP nanoparticles onto a nickel foam substrate (FeP@NPC/NF-450). This catalyst exhibits exceptional HER activity in 0.5 M H2SO4 and 1.0 M KOH solutions, with overpotentials of 68.3 mV and 106.1 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, respectively. Furthermore, it demonstrates excellent stability with negligible decay over 48 h in both acidic and alkaline solutions. The outstanding hydrogen evolution catalytic performance of FeP@NPC/NF-450 is mainly due to the N, P co-doped carbon matrix, which safeguards the FeP nanoparticles from aggregation and surface oxidation. Consequently, this enhances the availability of active sites during the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), leading to improved stability. Moreover, introducing nickel foam offers a larger specific surface area and enhances charge transfer rates. This study provides a reference method for preparing stable and highly active electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution.