The scalable and sustainable production of hydrogen fuel through water splitting demands efficient and robust Earth-abundant catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Building on promising metal compounds with high HER catalytic activity, such as pyrite structure cobalt disulphide (CoS2), and substituting non-metal elements to tune the hydrogen adsorption free energy could lead to further improvements in catalytic activity. Here we present a combined theoretical and experimental study to establish ternary pyrite-type cobalt phosphosulphide (CoPS) as a high-performance Earth-abundant catalyst for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. Nanostructured CoPS electrodes achieved a geometrical catalytic current density of 10 mA cm-2;at overpotentials as low as 48 mV, with outstanding long-term operational stability. Integrated photocathodes of CoPS on n+–p–p+;silicon micropyramids achieved photocurrents up to 35 mA cm-2;at 0 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), onset photovoltages as high as 450 mV versus RHE, and the most efficient solar-driven hydrogen generation from Earth-abundant systems.
Nature Materials (2015) doi:10.1038/nmat4410
Received 05 May 2015 Accepted 30 July 2015 Published online 14 September 2015
http://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat4410.html
通过裂解水的方法大规模、可持续的制备氢气需要有高效、廉价的催化剂。以高效的金属催化剂为模板（如黄铁矿型二硫化钴），取代其中的非金属元素，有望进一步提高催化剂的活性。 Caban-Acevedo 等人用理论和实验相结合的方法，设计合成了一种三元黄铁矿型钴磷硫（CoPS）化合物，可以作为高效的电化学/光电化学制氢催化剂。这种纳米结构的 CoPS 电极在仅仅 48mV 的过电势下，可以获得 10mAcm2 的电流密度，并且具有良好的稳定性。(NatureMaterials DOI : 10.1038 / NMAT 4410 )（新材料在线整理）
