Phosphorus-doped Fe7S8@C nanowires for efficient electrochemical hydrogen and oxygen evolutions: Controlled synthesis and electronic modulation on active sites

Abstract Developing low-cost, efficient, and stable non-precious-metal electrocatalysts with controlled crystal structure, morphology and compositions are highly desirable for hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions. Herein, a series of phosphorus-doped Fe7S8 nanowires integrated within carbon (P-Fe7S8@C) are rationally synthesized via a one-step phosphorization of one-dimensional (1D) Fe-based organic-inorganic nanowires. The as-obtained P-Fe7S8@C catalysts with modified electronic configurations present typical porous structure, providing plentiful active sites for rapid reaction kinetics. Density functional calculations demonstrate that the doping Fe7S8 with P can effectively enhance the electron density of Fe7S8 around the Fermi level and weaken the Fe-H bonding, leading to the decrease of adsorption free energy barrier on active sites. As a result, the optimal catalyst of P-Fe7S8-600@C exhibits a relatively low overpotential of 136 mV for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) to reach the current density of 10 mA/cm2, and a significantly low overpotential of 210 mV for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at 20 mA/cm2 in alkaline media. The work presented here may pave the way to design and synthesis of other prominent Fe-based catalysts for water splitting via electronic regulation.