Modifying properties and endurance of CoP by cerium doping to enhances overall water splitting in alkaline medium

The development of efficient electrocatalyst is one of the effective ways to speed up the efficiency of water electrolysis. In this work, we prepared a nested-like Ce-doped CoP nanowires catalytic material on carbon cloth by simple hydrothermal and phosphating methods. After adjusting the doping ratio of Ce, the doping ratio (Ce/W = 6 %) with the best performance is obtained and named as Ce-CoP NWs/CC. The Ce-CoP NWs/CC exhibits preeminent electrocatalytic activity with low overpotentials with 80 and 290 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for HER and OER, respectively. Moreover, the Ce-CoP NWs/CC electrocatalyst also exhibits excellent electrochemical performance in overall water splitting with a low voltage of 1.506 V at 10 mA cm−2, outperforming many reported electrocatalysts. This work provides a feasible electrocatalytic material for the introduction of rare earth elements into water electrolysis.