Abstract Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) through the electrochemical process at low overpotentials is vital for sustainable energy production. However, the fabrication of non-precious materials with high efficiency for the HER remains a challenge. Here, a new catalyst that consists of cobalt (Co) species embedded nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) co-doped carbon nanotubes (CNT) is fabricated by the polymerization of dopamine on the cobalt-nitrilotriacetic coordination polymer nanowire surface, followed by the phosphidation and carbonization under high temperature. After the pretreatment by potassium hydroxide (KOH) and the removal of metallic Co nanoparticles by sulfuric acid (H2SO4), the activated catalyst (A-Co/N,P-CNT-700) exhibits an overpotential of 44 mV to obtain 10 mA cm−2 current density , approaching the value of commercial Pt/C catalyst (27 mV). The catalyst could easily maintain ~ 95% of its original HER activity after 15–hour stability test. The superior performance arises from the unique N-Co-P surface bonding states at the interface between CoP nanoparticles (1–4 nm) and N,P co-doped CNT. To the best of our knowledge, such HER performance is the best among noble metal free electrocatalysts in acidic electrolytes.

中文翻译：

---

CoP嵌入的氮磷共掺杂介孔碳纳米管用于高效析氢

摘要 在低过电位下通过电化学过程进行的析氢反应（HER）对于可持续能源生产至关重要。然而，制造高效的 HER 非贵重材料仍然是一个挑战。在这里，通过在钴 - 次氮基三乙酸配位聚合物纳米线表面上聚合多巴胺，制备了一种由嵌入氮 (N) 和磷 (P) 共掺杂碳纳米管 (CNT) 的钴 (Co) 物种组成的新型催化剂。在高温下磷化和碳化。在氢氧化钾 (KOH) 预处理和硫酸 (H2SO4) 去除金属 Co 纳米粒子后，活化的催化剂 (A-Co/N,P-CNT-700) 表现出 44 mV 的过电位以获得 10 mA cm −2 电流密度 , 接近商业 Pt/C 催化剂的价值 (27 mV)。在 15 小时的稳定性测试后，该催化剂可以轻松保持其原始 HER 活性的约 95%。卓越的性能源于 CoP 纳米粒子（1-4 nm）和 N,P 共掺杂 CNT 之间界面处独特的 N-Co-P 表面键合状态。据我们所知，这种 HER 性能是酸性电解质中不含贵金属的电催化剂中最好的。