Chapter 15: Metal Phosphide-based Electrocatalysts for Hydrogen Production

Hydrogen is a promising and clean fuel for replacing fossil fuels to alleviate pollution issues. It can be produced with high purity in an eco-friendly and efficient manner via electrocatalytic water splitting. Exploring inexpensive and high-performance catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is important for practical applications. Transition metal phosphides (TMPs) are recognized as attractive HER catalytic materials since they contain various active phases with tunable electronic structures. In this chapter, recent progress on TMPs developed as HER catalysts is presented. In particular, the main synthesis strategies, such as in situ generation, post-treatment, and electrodeposition methods, for preparing highly efficient TMP-based electrocatalysts are introduced, and the importance of electronic structure modulation, multicomponent hybrid engineering and microstructure regulation is emphasized. Finally, the challenges and prospects in development of TMP-based electrocatalysts for water splitting to produce hydrogen are highlighted.