Design of binder-free hierarchical Mo-Fe-Ni phosphides nanowires array anchored on carbon cloth with high electrocatalytic capability toward hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract It is of immense importance to design and explore efficient electrocatalysts based on low-cost noble-metal free nanostructures toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), which remains an immense challenge. Herein, we designed a novel tri-metal phosphides based on Mo-Fe-Ni phosphides nanowires (Mo-Fe-Ni-P NWs) that directly grown on CC through a facile and simple hydrothermal process followed by a phosphorization step in the presence of NaH2PO2 as the P source. Outstandingly, benefiting from the unparalleled hierarchical NWs structure with large surface areas, open channels for effective releasing of gas products, and also special electronic structure engineering with rapid mass/electron transport, the resulting advanced binder-free Mo-Fe-Ni-P NWs@CC renders supreme HER performance in the KOH (alkaline) electrolyte. At an overpotential as low as 75 mV, it renders a current density of 10 mA cm−2. More importantly, it can achieve remarkable operational stability that is very desirable for practical application. Our design exhibits a rational strategy for the fabrication of advanced binder-free ternary metal phosphide NWs as a noble-metal free HER electrocatalyst toward high efficient with low cost H2 production.