Selenium-inducing activates molybdenum phosphide/nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanoparticles for boosting hydrogen generation

Transition metal phosphide has recently become a research hotspot of electrocatalysis because of its low price and excellent performance. Furthermore, nonmetal heteroatom incorporation into materials is a good way to regulate the surface electronic structure of electrocatalysts to boost their electrocatalytic performance. Based on this, the molybdenum phosphide (MoP) nanoparticles were firstly anchored on nitrogen-doped the porous carbon (NC) substrate by a simple annealing process, and then doped with nonmetal heteroatom selenium (Se) by hy-drothermal method. By adjusting the content of selenium, x Se-doped MoP/NC nanoparticle electrocatalysts were successfully synthesized. Among them, the 0.25 Se-MoP/NC electrocatalyst exhibited the best HER catalytic performance, which presented a low overpotential of 141 and 166 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in a 1.0 M KOH and 0.5 M H2SO4 and Tafel slope of 69.91 and 62.93 mV dec � 1 for HER, respectively. Benefiting from the doping of se-lenium, the electronic structure and surface composition of MoP can be effectively regulated, which is conducive to expose abundant active sites and enhance the inherent activity of MoP. Additionally, the N-doped porous carbon substrate also facilitates the diffusion of electrolyte/bubbles and good charge/mass-transfer ability. Furthermore, the electrocatalyst had good stability both in an acidic and alkaline media. This work provides an idea for the synthesis of nonmetal doped-transition metal phosphide as HER electrocatalyst with high efficiency and stability.