N- doped CoP nanoparticles embedded in electrospun N-doped porous carbon nanofiber as high-efficiency oxygen evolution electrocatalysts

Abstract The development of high-efficiency and low-cost oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts has attracted increasing research attention. Herein, we report a novel nanocomposite of N-doped CoP nanoparticles embedded in porous carbon nanofibers (N–CoP@NPCNFs) synthesized using zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67)@Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers (ZIF-67@PNFs) as the precursor through carbonization, oxidation and phosphidation with N-doping. The fabricated N1–CoP@NPCNFs-900 shows outstanding electrocatalytic properties for OER due to a synergistic effect between the carbon nanofibers and the N-doped CoP nanoparticles. It exhibits a low overpotential of only 266 mV at 10 mA cm−2, a small Tafel slope of 70 mV dec−1 and excellent durability for OER in 1.0 M KOH. Therefore, the obtained N1–CoP@NPCNFs-900 is promising for application as a high-efficiency and low-cost OER electrocatalyst.