Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Effects of Catalyst Phase on the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction of Water Splitting: Preparation of Phase-Pure Films of FeP, Fe2P, and Fe3 P and Their Relative Catalytic Activities

Journal Article · · Chemistry of Materials
The comparative catalytic activities of iron phosphides, FexP (x = 1–3), have been established with phase-pure material grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) from single-source organometallic precursors. This is the first report of the preparation of phase-pure thin films of FeP and Fe2P, and their identity was established with scanning-electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction. All materials were deposited on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) for evaluation of their activities toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) of water splitting in 0.5 M H2SO4. HER activity follows the trend Fe3P > Fe2P > FeP, with Fe3P having the lowest overpotential of 49 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm–2. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are congruent with the observed activity trend with hydrogen binding favoring the iron-rich terminating surfaces of Fe3P and Fe2P over the iron-poor terminating surfaces of FeP. The results present a clear trend of activity with iron-rich phosphide phases outperforming phosphorus rich phases for hydrogen evolution. The films of Fe2P were grown using Fe(CO)4PH3 (1), while the films of FeP were prepared using either Fe(CO)4PtBuH2 (2) or the new molecule {Fe(CO)4P(H)tBu}2 (3) on quartz and FTO. Compound 3 was prepared from the reaction of PCl2tBu with a mixture of Na[HFe(CO)4] and Na2[Fe(CO)4] and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, ESI-MS, elemental analysis, and 31P/1H NMR spectroscopies. Films of Fe3P were prepared as previously described from H2Fe3(CO)9PtBu (4).
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1543610
Journal Information:
Chemistry of Materials, Journal Name: Chemistry of Materials Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 30; ISSN 0897-4756
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (60)

Synthesis of Phase-Pure Ferromagnetic Fe3P Films from Single-Source Molecular Precursors journal February 2012
MoS 2 Formed on Mesoporous Graphene as a Highly Active Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution journal May 2013
Defect-Rich MoS 2 Ultrathin Nanosheets with Additional Active Edge Sites for Enhanced Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution journal August 2013
Construction of Efficient 3D Gas Evolution Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution: Porous FeP Nanowire Arrays on Graphene Sheets journal June 2015
A Review of Phosphide-Based Materials for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution journal October 2015
A Flexible Electrode Based on Iron Phosphide Nanotubes for Overall Water Splitting journal October 2015
Synthesis of Hexagonal FeMnP Thin Films from a Single‐Source Molecular Precursor journal April 2017
Hydrogen Evolution Over Bimetallic Systems: Understanding the Trends journal May 2006
?-Olefin-eisentetracarbonyl-Komplexe mit Liganden der Malein-, Fumar-, Acryl-, Methacryl- und Zimts�ure-Reihe journal January 1963
The Fe-P (iron-phosphorus) system journal August 1990
Bonding and energetics of phosphorus (III) ligands in transition metal complexes journal November 1994
γ-FeP4, a new photosensitive semiconductor journal April 1987
Novel catalysts for advanced hydroprocessing: transition metal phosphides journal May 2003
A structural survey of the binary transition metal phosphides and arsenides of the d-block elements journal January 2018
Recent developments of carbon-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction journal October 2016
Bifunctional metal phosphide FeMnP films from single source metal organic chemical vapor deposition for efficient overall water splitting journal September 2017
Thin Films of (Fe 1– x Co x ) 3 P and Fe 3 (P 1– x Te x ) from the Co-Decomposition of Organometallic Precursors by MOCVD journal September 2016
Boosting the Catalytic Performance of Iron Phosphide Nanorods for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction by Incorporation of Manganese journal March 2017
Unique Fe 2 P Nanoparticles Enveloped in Sandwichlike Graphited Carbon Sheets as Excellent Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Catalyst and Lithium-Ion Battery Anode journal November 2015
General Strategy for the Synthesis of Transition Metal Phosphide Films for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen and Oxygen Evolution journal May 2016
Electrochemical Activity of Iron Phosphide Nanoparticles in Hydrogen Evolution Reaction journal July 2016
Active Role of Phosphorus in the Hydrogen Evolving Activity of Nickel Phosphide (0001) Surfaces journal October 2017
Vertically Aligned MoS 2 /Mo 2 C hybrid Nanosheets Grown on Carbon Paper for Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution journal September 2017
Climbing the Volcano of Electrocatalytic Activity while Avoiding Catalyst Corrosion: Ni 3 P, a Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst Stable in Both Acid and Alkali journal April 2018
Surface-Oxidized Dicobalt Phosphide Nanoneedles as a Nonprecious, Durable, and Efficient OER Catalyst journal May 2016
Use of Platinum as the Counter Electrode to Study the Activity of Nonprecious Metal Catalysts for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction journal April 2017
A TiO 2 /FeMnP Core/Shell Nanorod Array Photoanode for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Oxygen Evolution journal March 2017
FeP:  Another Attractive Anode for the Li-Ion Battery Enlisting a Reversible Two-Step Insertion/Conversion Process journal July 2006
X-ray Photoelectron and Absorption Spectroscopy of Metal-Rich Phosphides M 2 P and M 3 P ( M = Cr−Ni) journal November 2008
The Photochemical Synthesis of Pentacarbonyliron(0) Derivatives journal June 1966
Reaction of bulky monosubstituted phosphorus(III) halides with disodium pentacarbonylchromate. Steric and electronic factors in the synthesis of Cr(CO)5 complexes of diphosphenes, phosphinidenes, phosphanes, diphosphanes, and cyclopolyphosphanes journal September 1987
Low-Temperature Synthesis of Amorphous FeP 2 and Its Use as Anodes for Li Ion Batteries journal March 2012
Efficient Water Oxidation Using CoMnP Nanoparticles journal March 2016
Large-Scale Synthesis of Carbon-Shell-Coated FeP Nanoparticles for Robust Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Electrocatalyst journal May 2017
Electrocatalytic and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production from Acidic and Neutral-pH Aqueous Solutions Using Iron Phosphide Nanoparticles journal October 2014
Reaction of Terminal Phosphinidene Complexes with Dihydrogen journal November 2011
Simple Access to Tungsten-Stabilized Disecondary Diphosphines journal September 2013
Transition-metal-based magnetic refrigerants for room-temperature applications journal January 2002
Density functional theory calculations for the hydrogen evolution reaction in an electrochemical double layer on the Pt(111) electrode journal January 2007
Electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution using amorphous tungsten phosphide nanoparticles journal January 2014
New insights into the electrochemical hydrogen oxidation and evolution reaction mechanism journal January 2014
Nickel phosphide: the effect of phosphorus content on hydrogen evolution activity and corrosion resistance in acidic medium journal January 2014
FeP and FeP 2 nanowires for efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction journal January 2016
Recent advances in transition metal phosphide nanomaterials: synthesis and applications in hydrogen evolution reaction journal January 2016
Designing an improved transition metal phosphide catalyst for hydrogen evolution using experimental and theoretical trends journal January 2015
The hierarchical nanowires array of iron phosphide integrated on a carbon fiber paper as an effective electrocatalyst for hydrogen generation journal January 2016
Synthesis of MoP decorated carbon cloth as a binder-free electrode for hydrogen evolution journal January 2016
Fe 2 P/reduced graphene oxide/Fe 2 P sandwich-structured nanowall arrays: a high-performance non-noble-metal electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution journal January 2017
Fe, Co, and Ni ions promote the catalytic activity of amorphous molybdenum sulfide films for hydrogen evolution journal January 2012
Anion-exchange synthesis of nanoporous FeP nanosheets as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction journal January 2013
Stoichiometry-controlled FeP nanoparticles synthesized from a single source precursor journal January 2013
Technical and economic feasibility of centralized facilities for solar hydrogen production via photocatalysis and photoelectrochemistry journal January 2013
Studies of the magnetic structure of Fe 3 P journal April 1974
Application of Bravais-Friedel-Donnay-Harker, attachment energy and Ising models to predicting and understanding the morphology of molecular crystals journal February 1991
Magnetocrystalline anisotropy and the magnetocaloric effect in Fe 2 P journal September 2013
Identification of Active Edge Sites for Electrochemical H2 Evolution from MoS2 Nanocatalysts journal July 2007
Combining theory and experiment in electrocatalysis: Insights into materials design journal January 2017
Trends in the Exchange Current for Hydrogen Evolution journal January 2005
Die Struktur von Bis(cyclopentadienyldicarhonylmangan)-1.2-diphenyldiphosphan, [C 5 H 5 (CO) 2 Mn] 2 PhP(H)—(H)PPh.: The Structure of Bis(cyclopentadienyldicarbonylmanganese)-1,2-diphenyldiphosphane, [C 5 H 5 (CO) 2 Mn] 2 PhP(H)-(H)PPh journal September 1976
Oxidative Knüpfung einer Phosphor-Phosphor-Bindung unter Einwirkung von Ag(I)- bzw. Cu(II)-Ionen: Synthese und Struktur von [(C 6 H 5 )PH 2 Ag{μ-(C 6 H 5 PH) 2 }] 2 (AsF 6 ) 2 , einem sechsgliedrigen Silber-Phosphor-Ring / The Oxidative Formation of a Phosphorus-Phosphorus Bond in the Presence of Ag(I) and Cu(II) Ions: Synthesis and Structure of [(C 6 H 5 )PH 2 Ag{μ-(C 6 H 5 PH) 2 }] 2 (AsF 6 ) 2 , Containing a Six-Membered Silver-Phosphorus Ring journal May 1985

Cited By (12)

Amorphous Ni x Co y P-supported TiO 2 nanotube arrays as an efficient hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalyst in acidic solution journal January 2019
Multifunctional Transition Metal‐Based Phosphides in Energy‐Related Electrocatalysis journal September 2019
Phosphate Doped Ultrathin FeP Nanosheets as Efficient Electrocatalysts for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction in Acid Media journal April 2019
Metal–Organic Framework‐Derived Fe/Co‐based Bifunctional Electrode for H 2 Production through Water and Urea Electrolysis journal October 2019
Self‐Supportive Mesoporous Ni/Co/Fe Phosphosulfide Nanorods Derived from Novel Hydrothermal Electrodeposition as a Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting journal October 2019
In pursuit of advanced materials from single-source precursors based on metal carbonyls journal January 2019
Mechanisms for hydrogen evolution on transition metal phosphide catalysts and a comparison to Pt(111) journal January 2019
FeP 3 monolayer as a high-efficiency catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction journal January 2019
Neighboring effect induced by V and Cr doping in FeCoP nanoarrays for the hydrogen evolution reaction with Pt-like performance journal January 2020
In situ synthesis of Cu 3 P/g-C 3 N 4 heterojunction with superior photocatalytic hydrogen evolution journal September 2019
Magnetocaloric materials: From micro- to nanoscale journal November 2018
A General Method for the Synthesis of Hybrid Nanostructures Using MoSe 2 Nanosheet-Assembled Nanospheres as Templates journal November 2019


Similar Records

Operando Spectroscopic Analysis of CoP Films Electrocatalyzing the Hydrogen-Evolution Reaction
Journal Article · Sun Aug 27 20:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of the American Chemical Society · OSTI ID:1398516