The Fe-promoted MoP catalyst with high activity for water splitting

•The promoter of Fe was introduced over the MoP catalyst.•The addition of Fe increased the current density about 6 times.•The addition content of Fe greatly affected the HER performances of MoP catalysts.•The highest HER activity was achieved over the FeMoP-0.10 catalyst.

By the introduction of Fe element, a novel Fe-promoted MoP catalyst was proposed for the first time, which was prepared via a simple temperature-programmed reduction method. Benefitting from the promotion effect of Fe, the HER activity of the MoP catalyst is remarkably enhanced with smaller Tafel slope and much larger current density, which can be attributed to the reduced crystal size and smaller charge transfer resistances. However, it must be noted that the addition content of Fe must be accurately controlled, or the final HER activity will be deteriorated.

Graphical abstractThe promotion effect of Fe was demonstrated over the MoP catalyst in HER, leading to a remarkable enhancement of the activity with a smaller Tafel slope of 49 mV dec−1 and much larger current density (about 6 times).Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (94 K)Download as PowerPoint slide