Porous nickel powder supported Ni–P/CNTs: an efficient catalyst for hydrogen production via water splitting

It is of great significance to develop and prepare a kind of earth-abundant and a low-cost non-noble metal catalyst to replace the noble metal catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Transition metal phosphides (TMP) has great potential for alleviating the energy crisis in catalytic applications. Herein, we report the synthesis of nickel phosphides decorated on carbon nanotubes (Ni–P/CNTs) using a porous nickel powder by a simple, traditional and effective method of powder metallurgy. The Ni–P/CNTs catalyst obtained at 700 °C for 60 min performs a better catalytic activity than samples prepared under other process conditions in acidic solutions during our experiment. This catalytic activity may be associated with the flower-shaped morphology, electrochemically active surface areas and contents of P of hybrid catalyst. This work will provide a promising pathway for designing various transition metal compounds and exploring the performance in catalysts for energy-related catalysis processes using porous metal materials.