Hydrogen evolution catalyzed by cobalt-promoted molybdenum phosphide nanoparticles

Co-promoted molybdenum phosphide nanoparticles have been successfully prepared and explored for the first time as a cost-effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The as-developed catalyst demonstrates excellent HER activity with a small Tafel slope of 50 mV dec−1 which is among the best records reported for MoP-based catalysts. The addition of Co not only reduces the particle size of the MoP-based catalyst and promotes the charge transfer, but also enhances the intrinsic activity of each active site, paving the way for optimizing the HER performances of ternary or multiple transition metal phosphide catalysts.