Molten Salts Strategy for the Synthesis of CoP Nanoparticles Entrapped, N,P Co-doped Mesoporous Carbons as Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Evolution

A molten salt process was developed to prepare CoP nanoparticles(NPs) embedded, N,P co-doped carbons with the combination of hand milling and high temperature carbonization. The characterization results implied that the as-prepared samples possessed mesoporous structures. Moreover, the mass ratios of the precursors affected the crystalline structures and the porosities of the final electrocatalysts. The as-prepared catalysts exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performances towards hydrogen evolution reaction(HER) under acidic and alkaline conditions. The as-prepared samples were designed as GxMyCoz, where x, y and z meant the amounts of glucose, melamine and CoCl2, respectively. The optimum sample of G6.0M2.0Co5.0 showed the best HER property with a low onset overpotential and a small Tafel slope, as well as excellent electrocatalytic stability.