Water
splitting via an electrochemical process
to generate hydrogen is an economic and green approach to resolve
the looming energy and environmental crisis. The rational design of
multicomponent materials with seamless interfaces having robust stability,
facile scalability, and low-cost electrocatalysts is a grand challenge
to produce hydrogen by water electrolysis. Herein, we report a superhydrophilic
homogeneous bimetallic phosphide of Ni2P–CuP2 on Ni-foam-graphene-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) heterostructure
using facile electrochemical metallization followed by phosphorization
without any intervention of metal-oxides/hydroxides. This bimetallic
phosphide shows ultralow overpotentials of 12 (HER, hydrogen evolution
reaction) and 140 mV (OER, oxygen evolution reaction) at current densities
of 10 and 20 mA/cm2 in acidic and alkaline mediums, respectively.
The excellent stability lasts for at least for 10 days at a high current
density of 500 mA/cm2 without much deviation, inferring
the practical utilization of the catalyst toward green fuel production.
Undoubtedly, the catalyst is capable enough for overall water splitting
at a very low cell voltage of 1.45 V @10 mA/cm2 with an
impressive stability of at least 40 h, showing a minimum loss of potential.
Theoretical study has been performed to understand the reaction kinetics
and d-band shifting among metal atoms in the heterostructure (Ni2P–CuP2) that favor the HER and OER activities,
respectively. In addition, the catalyst demonstrates an alternate
transformation of solar energy to green H2 production using
a standard silicon solar cell. This work unveils a smart design and
synthesizes a highly stable electrocatalyst against an attractive
paradigm of commercial water electrolysis for renewable electrochemical
energy conversion.