Construction of crystalline/amorphous nanostructured Mo-Ni₂P/NF for efficient electrocatalytic water splitting

Electrolyzed water technology can not only be used for sustainable energy conversion, storage of intermittent and fluctuating renewable energy, but also has the advantages of easy operation and low investment cost, which is likely to be the core of future energy reform. Herein, the Mo-doped nickel phosphide nanostructures (Mo-Ni 2 P/NF) electrocatalyst with a unique microstructure of nanocrystal-decorated amorphous nanosheets was synthesized by electrodeposition and hypophosphite thermal decomposition method using nickel foam as the growth substrate. The as-prepared catalyst exhibits good stability and low overpotential of 79.5 mV for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and 210 mV for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) to attain 10 mA cm[Formula: see text] in 1.0 M KOH electrolyte. The excellent electrocatalytic performance could be attributed not only to the to the doping of Mo element, which improves the intrinsic catalytic ability of a single active site and increases the oxidation resistance of catalysts, but also to the strong interaction of amorphous layer and crystallized nanoparticles, which effectively prevents the particles from agglomeration and deactivation, and the appropriate contact between the nanoparticles also can increases the charge transfer rate and makes up for the lack of conductivity of the amorphous layer. This work demonstrates the great promise of Mo-Ni 2 P/NF as advanced electrocatalysts for renewable energy applications.