There has been strong and growing interest in the development of cost-effective and highly active oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts for alternative fuels utilization and conversion devices. We report herein that semimetallic Cu3P nanoarrays directly grown on 3D copper foam (CF) substrate can function as effective electrocatalysts for water oxidation. Specifically, the surface oxidation-activated Cu3P only required a relatively low overpotential of 412 mV to achieve a current density of 50 mA cm(-2) and displayed a small Tafel slope of 63 mV dec(-1) in 0.1 M KOH solution, on account of the collaborative effect of large roughness factor (RF) and semimetallic character. Following that, investigations into the mechanism revealed the formation of a unique active phase during the water oxidation process in which conductive Cu3P was the core covered with a thin copper oxide/hydroxide layer. Moreover, this Cu3P 3D electrode was also applied to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and showed good catalytic performance and stability under the same basic conditions.
Keywords: copper phosphide; electrocatalysis; hydrogen evolution; oxygen evolution; water splitting.