Confinement of transition metal phosphides in N, P-doped electrospun carbon fibers for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract Research of highly dispersed transition metal phosphides (TMPs)-based catalysts for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution is of great significance in the area of renewable energy. Herein, the high dispersion of FeNiP nanoparticles on N, P-doped electrospun carbon fibers was realized via the confinement effect induced by phytic acid (PA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN), as well as electrospinning technique. PA and PAN were used as ligand for coordinating transition metal (TM) ions and carbon sources, respectively. In addition, the nucleophilic addition reaction between PA and PAN resulted in the cyclization of PAN and the further formation of a supramolecular network. Besides, the chelating ability of PA to TM ions was also modulated. Benefitting from the confinement effect, the optimized FeNiP/NPC800 exhibit good hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activities for achieving a current density of 10 mA cm−2 at an overpotential of 277 mV in 0.5 M H2SO4.