Atomic Diffusion Rate Dominated Fabrication of High Entropy Phosphide with Heterogeneous Aggregation for Oxygen Evolution Reaction

The synthesis of high-entropy phosphide (HEP) remains a great challenge owing to the different migration rates of different metallic atoms. Herein, a new metal organic gel (MOG) precursor strategy is proposed for HEP synthesis by controlling the migration rate of different atoms in an organic gel. The MOG precursor with five kinds of metal and phosphor species homogeneously dispersing is formed through a facile solvothermal method, which is calcined at 900 °C to obtain carbon-supported HEP FeCoNiMnCdP (MPC-5). The difference in the atom radius and the influence of MOG on the migration rate result in heterogeneous aggregation of different atoms in the product, which increases the defects in the product to a certain extent. In addition, the presence of carbon and nitrogen in the gel simultaneously realizes carbon coating and nitrogen doping. Combining the above advantages, the MPC-5 shows excellent oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalytic performance with an overpotential of 250 mV at 10 mA·cm –2, superior to many recently reported OER electrocatalysts. This work provides a new strategy to solve the differences in the migration rates of different metals to obtain pure phase high-entropy phosphides, which is conducive to the further development of high-entropy materials and their applications in the energy and catalysis fields.