Ru dopants induced tensile strain in Ni2P for efficient urea-assisted water decomposition at an ampere-level current density

Ru dopants enhanced electrocatalytic performance by optimizing the electronic configuration, but how to efficiently dope Ru and introduce strain effect is a challenge. In this work, Vb12 is used to introduce the CN layer into phosphides and effectively increase the doping amount of Ru. Notably, Ru dopants induce Ni2P to produce a tensile strain of 0.172%, effectively optimizing the electronic configuration of Ru-Ni2P. Obviously, Ni with more positive charges acts as the UOR active site, and the optimized Ru acts as the HER active site, synergistically promoting urea-assisted total water decomposition. Surprisingly, the Ru-Ni2P@CN catalyst only required a potential of 1.412 V to drive 1 A cm−2 for urea-assisted water splitting. With the help of Vb12, abundant Ru dopants, and tensile strain were successfully introduced into the phosphide electrode, which provided a new idea for optimizing the performance of the phosphide electrode.