Amorphous quaternary alloy phosphide hierarchical nanoarrays with pagoda-like structure grown on Ni foam as pH-universal electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract Alloy phosphides as one of the most prospect materials are used in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) because of their adjustable composition, electronic structure and optimized activation energy for the electrocatalytic reactions. Herein, amorphous quaternary alloy phosphide NiCoFeP@NiCoP/NF with pagoda-like hierarchical nanoarrays structure grown on Ni foam is synthesized. The synergy effect between alloy components, the superior hierarchical nanoarrays structure and superaerophobic characteristic enables NiCoFeP@NiCoP/NF to be a pH-Universal electrocatalyst with high electrocatalytic performance toward HER and simulated seawater. To achieve 10 mA cm−2, this catalyst just required overpotential of 77, 136 and 184 mV in alkaline, acidic and neutral aqueous solution. The NiCo2O4@Ni [Fe (CN)6]/NF has stable HER performance (over 10 h) and a Faradic efficiency of 90.5% in simulated seawater. This work is expected to open up a new road for the construction of amorphous alloy phosphides with hierarchical nanoarrays structure for energy storage and conversion.