Active Role of Phosphorus in the Hydrogen Evolving Activity of Nickel Phosphide (0001) Surfaces
Abstract
Optimizing catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a critical step toward the efficient production of H 2(g) fuel from water. It has been demonstrated experimentally that transition-metal phosphides, specifically nickel phosphides Ni 2P and Ni 5P 4, efficiently catalyze the HER at a small fraction of the cost of archetypal Pt-based electrocatalysts. However, the HER mechanism on nickel phosphides remains unclear. We explore, through density functional theory with thermodynamics, the aqueous reconstructions of Ni 2P(0001) and Ni 5P 4(0001)/(000$$ \overline{1}\ $$), and we find that the surface P content on Ni 2P(0001) depends on the applied potential, which has not been considered previously. At -0.21 V ≥ U ≥ -0.36 V versus the standard hydrogen electrode and pH = 0, a PH x-enriched Ni 3P 2 termination of Ni 2P(0001) is found to be most stable, consistent with its P-rich ultrahigh-vacuum reconstructions. Above and below this potential range, the stoichiometric Ni 3P 2 surface is instead passivated by H at the Ni 3-hollow sites. On the other hand, Ni 5P 4(000$$ \overline{1}\ $$) does not favor additional P. Instead, the Ni 4P 3 bulk termination of Ni 5P 4(000$$ \overline{1}\ $$) is passivated by H at both themore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE; US Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1479670
- Grant/Contract Number:
- N00014-17-1-2574
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Catalysis
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2155-5435
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 08 HYDROGEN; electrocatalysis; hydrogen evolution; metal phosphides; nickel phosphides; density functional theory; aqueous surface phase diagram
Citation Formats
Wexler, Robert B., Martirez, John Mark P., and Rappe, Andrew M. Active Role of Phosphorus in the Hydrogen Evolving Activity of Nickel Phosphide (0001) Surfaces. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1021/acscatal.7b02761.
Wexler, Robert B., Martirez, John Mark P., & Rappe, Andrew M. Active Role of Phosphorus in the Hydrogen Evolving Activity of Nickel Phosphide (0001) Surfaces. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.7b02761
Wexler, Robert B., Martirez, John Mark P., and Rappe, Andrew M. Mon .
"Active Role of Phosphorus in the Hydrogen Evolving Activity of Nickel Phosphide (0001) Surfaces". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.7b02761. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1479670.
@article{osti_1479670,
title = {Active Role of Phosphorus in the Hydrogen Evolving Activity of Nickel Phosphide (0001) Surfaces},
author = {Wexler, Robert B. and Martirez, John Mark P. and Rappe, Andrew M.},
abstractNote = {Optimizing catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a critical step toward the efficient production of H2(g) fuel from water. It has been demonstrated experimentally that transition-metal phosphides, specifically nickel phosphides Ni2P and Ni5P4, efficiently catalyze the HER at a small fraction of the cost of archetypal Pt-based electrocatalysts. However, the HER mechanism on nickel phosphides remains unclear. We explore, through density functional theory with thermodynamics, the aqueous reconstructions of Ni2P(0001) and Ni5P4(0001)/(000$ \overline{1}\ $), and we find that the surface P content on Ni2P(0001) depends on the applied potential, which has not been considered previously. At -0.21 V ≥ U ≥ -0.36 V versus the standard hydrogen electrode and pH = 0, a PHx-enriched Ni3P2 termination of Ni2P(0001) is found to be most stable, consistent with its P-rich ultrahigh-vacuum reconstructions. Above and below this potential range, the stoichiometric Ni3P2 surface is instead passivated by H at the Ni3-hollow sites. On the other hand, Ni5P4(000$ \overline{1}\ $) does not favor additional P. Instead, the Ni4P3 bulk termination of Ni5P4(000$ \overline{1}\ $) is passivated by H at both the Ni3 and P3-hollow sites. We also found that the most HER-active surfaces are Ni3P2+P+(7/3)H of Ni2P(0001) and Ni4P3+4H of Ni5P4(000$ \overline{1}\ $) due to weak H adsorption at P catalytic sites, in contrast with other computational investigations that propose Ni as or part of the active site. By looking at viable catalytic cycles for HER on the stable reconstructed surfaces, and calculating the reaction free energies of the associated elementary steps, we calculate that the overpotential on the Ni4P3+4H surface of Ni5P4(000$ \overline{1}\ $) (-0.16 V) is lower than that of the Ni3P2+P+(7/3)H surface of Ni2P(0001) (-0.21 V). This is due to the abundance of P3-hollow sites on Ni5P4 and the limited surface stability of the P-enriched Ni2P(0001) surface phase. The trend in the calculated catalytic overpotentials, and the potential-dependent bulk and surface stabilities explain why the nickel phosphides studied here perform almost as well as Pt, and why Ni5P4 is more active than Ni2P toward HER, as is found in the experimental literature. This study emphasizes the importance of considering aqueous surface stability in predicting the HER-active sites, mechanism, and overpotential, and highlights the primary role of P in HER catalysis on transition-metal phosphides.},
doi = {10.1021/acscatal.7b02761},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1479670},
journal = {ACS Catalysis},
issn = {2155-5435},
number = 11,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {10}
}
Web of Science
Works referencing / citing this record:
Molecular Mimics of Heterogeneous Metal Phosphides: Thermochemistry, Hydride-Proton Isomerism, and HER Reactivity
journal, November 2018
- Buss, Joshua A.; Hirahara, Masanari; Ueda, Yohei
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 57, Issue 50
Molecular Mimics of Heterogeneous Metal Phosphides: Thermochemistry, Hydride-Proton Isomerism, and HER Reactivity
journal, November 2018
- Buss, Joshua A.; Hirahara, Masanari; Ueda, Yohei
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 130, Issue 50
Activating MoS 2 Basal Plane with Ni 2 P Nanoparticles for Pt‐Like Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Acidic Media
journal, March 2019
- Kim, Minkyung; Anjum, Mohsin Ali Raza; Lee, Minhee
- Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 10
Structure–Activity Relationships for Pt‐Free Metal Phosphide Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysts
journal, December 2017
- Owens‐Baird, Bryan; Kolen'ko, Yury V.; Kovnir, Kirill
- Chemistry – A European Journal, Vol. 24, Issue 29
Phase‐Controlled Synthesis of Nickel Phosphide Nanocrystals and Their Electrocatalytic Performance for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
journal, July 2018
- Li, Huiming; Lu, Siqi; Sun, Jingyao
- Chemistry – A European Journal, Vol. 24, Issue 45
Metal–Organic Framework‐Derived Fe/Co‐based Bifunctional Electrode for H 2 Production through Water and Urea Electrolysis
journal, October 2019
- Singh, Thangjam Ibomcha; Rajeshkhanna, Gaddam; Singh, Soram Bobby
- ChemSusChem, Vol. 12, Issue 21
Stable Active Sites on Ni 12 P 5 Surfaces for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
journal, May 2019
- Hu, Jun; Chen, Wei; Zhao, Xin
- Energy Technology, Vol. 7, Issue 6
Mechanistic Study of Monolayer NiP 2 (100) toward Solar Hydrogen Production
journal, September 2019
- Hu, Jun; Zhao, Xin; Chen, Wei
- Solar RRL, Vol. 4, Issue 8
Halamishite, Ni5P4, a new terrestrial phosphide in the Ni–P system
journal, January 2020
- Britvin, Sergey N.; Murashko, Mikhail N.; Vapnik, Yevgeny
- Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, Vol. 47, Issue 1
Nanocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions
journal, January 2018
- Ojha, Kasinath; Saha, Soumen; Dagar, Preeti
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 20, Issue 10
Nickel phosphide polymorphs with an active (001) surface as excellent catalysts for water splitting
journal, January 2019
- Jung, Chan Su; Park, Kidong; Lee, Yeron
- CrystEngComm, Vol. 21, Issue 7
Hydrogen adsorption trends on Al-doped Ni 2 P surfaces for optimal catalyst design
journal, January 2018
- Hakala, Mikko; Laasonen, Kari
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 20, Issue 20
Hydrogen adsorption trends on various metal-doped Ni 2 P surfaces for optimal catalyst design
journal, January 2019
- Partanen, Lauri; Hakala, Mikko; Laasonen, Kari
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 21, Issue 1
Selective CO 2 reduction to C 3 and C 4 oxyhydrocarbons on nickel phosphides at overpotentials as low as 10 mV
journal, January 2018
- Calvinho, Karin U. D.; Laursen, Anders B.; Yap, Kyra M. K.
- Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 11, Issue 9
Electrochemical activity of 1T′ structured rhenium selenide nanosheets via electronic structural modulation from selenium-vacancy generation
journal, January 2018
- Sun, Yuan; Meng, Jie; Ju, Huanxin
- Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Vol. 6, Issue 45
Mechanisms for hydrogen evolution on transition metal phosphide catalysts and a comparison to Pt(111)
journal, January 2019
- Li, Chenyang; Gao, Hao; Wan, Wan
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 21, Issue 44
Fabrication and study of the synergistic effect of Janus Ni 2 P/Ni 5 P 4 embedded in N-doped carbon as efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction
journal, January 2020
- Hong, Weizhao; Lv, Chade; Sun, Shanfu
- Catalysis Science & Technology, Vol. 10, Issue 4
Earth-Abundant Electrocatalysts in Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers
journal, December 2018
- Sun, Xinwei; Xu, Kaiqi; Fleischer, Christian
- Catalysts, Vol. 8, Issue 12