Organophosphine ligand derived sandwich-structural electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction

The synchronous construction of metal phosphate and phosphorus-doped carbon structures is of great significance to innovate the design,synthesis,and application of catalysts,as these phosphoruscontaining composite materials have shown a remarkable contribution to electrocatalysts.However,their preparation procedure generally involves using large amounts of excess phosphorus sources for phosphorization,which inevitably release poisonous PH_(3) or dangerous phosphorus vapor.Here,a strategy for in-situ formation of FePO_(4) embedded in P-doped carbon 2D nano film(FePO_(4)/PdC)is developed using a highly integrated precursor,which is a small molecular organophosphine ligand,1,1’bis(diphenylphosphine)ferrocene(DPPF).The multi-source precursor DPPF that contains Fe,P,and C is molecular-vapor-deposited on the nickel foam(NF)supported ZIF-67 nanosheets to obtain the composite catalyst,namely DPPF-500/ZIF-67/NF.FePO_(4)/PdC encapsulated the ZIF-67 derived Co/N-doped carbon matrix(Co NC)to form a sandwich structure FePO_(4)/PdC@CoNC.The constructed catalyst shows good performance for OER,requiring an overpotential of only 297 m V to deliver 600 m A/cm^(2) with a Tafel slope of 42.7 m V dec^(-1).DFT calculations demonstrate that the synergistic effects between the metal active center and P-doped carbon film reduce the energy barriers and improve electron transport.This method of constructing P-containing catalysts overcomes the demand for additional P sources to realize eco-friendly fabrication and yields a unique structure with good catalytic activity.