Hole-rich CoP nanosheets with an optimized d-band center for enhancing pH-universal hydrogen evolution electrocatalysis

Tailoring the d-band center is an effective method to promote the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of electrocatalysts. Herein, we demonstrate that the d-band center can be tuned through a hole-creating method to enhance pH-universal HER activity using CoP as a basic platform. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveals that the d-band center and the valence electron number of Co sites around the holes are upshifted, which boosts H adsorption. In addition, introducing holes into the nanosheets of CoP can optimize the ΔGH* of the Co atoms around the holes. Inspired by the DFT results, a soft template method was developed to synthesize hole-rich CoP nanosheets. With the advantages of hole-rich and unique nanosheet features, the hole-rich CoP nanosheets show low HER overpotentials with only 84 and 94 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in both acidic and alkaline media, better than that of the other dimensional counterparts. In addition, the hole-rich CoP nanosheets also show satisfactory stability after long-term HER tests. This strategy of regulating the d-band center is expected to be extended to other transition metal phosphide electrocatalysts for enhancing the HER performance.