Ga doping enables superior alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction performances of CoP

Abstract Design and fabrication of high-efficiency electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in alkaline conditions are crucial to reduce energy losses in water-alkali and chlorine-alkali industry yet challenging. Herein, density functional theory simulations indicate that the Ga dopant could systematically enhance the HER activity of CoP by improving the H2O adsorption, weakening OH adsorption, and optimizing the H adsorption/desorption. Aided by these findings, we successfully prepared ultrathin Ga-doped CoP nanosheets (Ga-CoP NSs) self-supported electrode via electrodeposition followed by the phosphorization treatment for the first time. Ga-CoP NSs delivers superior HER electrocatalytic activities with a very low overpotential of 44 mV to drive a current density of 10 mA cm−2, outperforming almost all non-noble metal based HER electrocatalysts in alkaline media.