Recent advances in amorphous metal phosphide electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

Hydrogen is a green energy with the long-term sustainability and high energy density. Hydrogen evolution reaction via electrocatalysis is a prospective strategy for green hydrogen. Pt-based electrocatalysts have exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activities on hydrogen evolution reaction. But the scarce and costly Pt limits the application of hydrogen evolution reaction. Therefore, non-Pt/low-Pt electrocatalysts have attracted much research attention. Amorphous metal phosphide electrocatalysts have shown significant electrocatalytic activities on hydrogen evolution reaction for their special long-range disordered but short-/medium-range ordered structures with abundant active sites and adjustable electronic structures. Mechanisms and electrochemical parameters of hydrogen evolution reaction as well as characterization technologies and atomic configurations of amorphous metal phosphides are firstly illustrated in the review. Amorphous monometallic, bimetallic, trimetallic and other multimetallic phosphides were investigated for modulation of electronic structures and active sites by heteroatom incorporation, nanoporous structure and heterostructure construction. The electrocatalytic performances of these amorphous metal phosphides are summarized in the review. Whereas some questions have emerged in recent researches, like atom leaching, uncertain self-constructions and lack of atomic configurations. Therefore, the future perspectives for the development of amorphous metal phosphide electrocatalysts on hydrogen evolution reaction are construction of stable amorphous metal phosphide electrocatalysts, exploration of self-construction mechanism and convenient construction of atomic configurations. (C) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.