Interface engineering of tungsten carbide/phosphide heterostructures anchored on N,P-codoped carbon for high-efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction

The development of inexpensive and efficient Pt-free electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is greatly crucial water electrolysis. Tungsten carbide (WC) exhibiting a Pt-like electronic structure represents an attractive alternative, although its overall performance limited by strong W-H bond that impedes desorption. Here, we employed in-situ interface engineering strategy to construct high-performance cost effective comprising WC/tungsten phosphide (WP) heterostructures were anchored on N,P-codoped carbon (WC/WP@NPC) via one-step pyrolysis melamine polyphosphate/WO3 hybrid in inert atmosphere. Owing crystal compatibility electron-rich property WP, it optimizes adsorption configuration WC, thus significantly weakening with thermoneutral Gibbs free energy (ΔGH*) −0.05 eV. Additionally, NPC ensures fast electron transport structural stability WC/WP@NPC ternary architecture. These synergistically lead outstanding HER performances catalyst acidic alkaline media. Our finding offers new designing Pt-alternative electrochemical high-efficiency splitting other applications.