Investigation of Ni2P/rGO porous composite catalyst for photocatalytic degradation and electrocataly hydrogen evolution reaction performance

As energy demand rises and environmental issues become more severe, various industries urgently need sustainable materials, and bifunctional catalysts are receiving increased attention. This paper employs a simple phosphating method to prepare Ni 2 P-supported reduced graphene oxide porous materials (Ni 2 P/rGO) as a bifunctional catalyst for photocatalytic degradation of pollutants and electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The introduction of polystyrene microspheres (PS) significantly improved the surface morphology of rGO, endowing Ni 2 P/rGO with excellent photocatalytic and electrocatalytic properties. The Ni 2 P/rGO composites material exhibits good degradation capabilities for diverse dyes and tetracycline hydrochloride (TC), with the best removal effects observed for methylene blue and tetracycline wastewater. Under visible light, the degradation efficiencies of methylene blue (MB) and TC pollutants within 100 min were 91 % and 83 %, respectively. Furthermore, with a low overpotential of 21.4 mV, a Tafel slope of 46.57 mV·dec −1 , and stability for 28 h, the Ni 2 P/rGO composite material demonstrates outstanding electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance in an alkaline environment. The above achievements mean that the current work has explored new trains of thought for the research and development of bifunctional catalysts.