Enhancing hydrogen evolution activity of triangular PtPdCu nanodarts by phosphorus incorporation

The development of effective and stable catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is desired for hydrogen production . Herein, we report a facile solvothermal approach to fabricate P-doped triangular PtPdCu nanodarts (PtPdCu-P NDs) using trioctylphosphine as phosphorus dopant. The PtPdCu-P NDs with separated branches can provide high surface areas and sufficient active sites for HER. Moreover, the incorporation of phosphorus into alloys can tailor the electronic structure and the d -band electron density of metals, which is beneficial for adsorption of hydrogen intermediates. Additionally, the phosphorus doping can effectively inhibit the metal dissolution during the electrolysis. Therefore, the PtPdCu-P NDs achieve a very low overpotential of 12 mV at current density of 10 mA cm −2 , rapid kinetics (Tafel slope: 29 mV dec -1 ) in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 , superior to the undoped PtPdCu NDs. Moreover, the PtPdCu-P NDs also exhibit excellent stability, without obvious structure change and activity degradation after 10,000 cycles and 50-h electrolysis. This P-doping strategy is a universal approach to incorporate phosphorus into various nanomaterials without the change of the overall morphology, which holds a high potential in the water electrolysis.