Ga doping enables superior alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction performances of CoP

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 H 2 O 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.