As a kind of catalyst with great development potential, the nickel–phosphorus (Ni–P) catalyst is widely studied. However, the difference in catalytic performance between the amorphous and crystalline Ni–P electrodes in hydrogen evolution still lacks the necessary research. Herein, an amorphous Ni–P electrode was prepared by a method of cathodic electrodeposition, and showed excellent catalytic performance, achieving a HER current density of 10 mA cm⁻² in 1.0 M KOH solution at an overpotential of 50 mV. Meanwhile, it was converted to a crystalline Ni–P electrode by annealing under vacuum. On this basis, we have compared the differences in the catalytic performance of the crystalline and amorphous Ni–P electrodes in alkaline and acidic environments. It was found that amorphous Ni–P showed excellent hydrogen evolution catalytic performance in alkaline electrolytes, which was mainly due to the better hydrophilicity and higher inherent catalytic activity of the amorphous state. But it was not stable, so the performance was not satisfactory in acidic solution. On the other hand, the inherent catalytic activity and hydrophilicity of crystalline Ni–P are somewhat worse than those of amorphous Ni–P, and the catalytic performance was not as good as that of the latter, but due to the stable chemical state, crystalline Ni–P had better stability in acidic solutions.

中文翻译：

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非晶态和结晶态的高效Ni-P催化剂，用于析氢反应

镍-磷（Ni-P）催化剂作为一种具有巨大发展潜力的催化剂，已经得到了广泛的研究。但是，在析氢过程中，非晶态和结晶态的Ni-P电极在催化性能上的差异仍然缺乏必要的研究。本文中，通过阴极电沉积方法制备了非晶态Ni-P电极，并显示出优异的催化性能，实现了10 mA cm ^-2的HER电流密度在1.0 M KOH溶液中以50 mV的过电势溶解。同时，通过真空退火将其转变为结晶的Ni-P电极。在此基础上，我们比较了碱性和酸性环境中结晶和非晶态Ni-P电极的催化性能差异。结果发现，非晶态Ni–P在碱性电解质中表现出优异的析氢催化性能，这主要是由于非晶态具有更好的亲水性和更高的固有催化活性。但是它不稳定，因此在酸性溶液中的性能不能令人满意。另一方面，结晶态Ni–P的固有催化活性和亲水性比非晶态Ni–P稍差，并且催化性能不如后者。