Vanadium doped nickel cobalt phosphide as an efficient and stable electrode catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

•V-NiCoP/CC nanowire arrays were grown on carbon cloth by hydrothermal and phosphorization method.•V-NiCoP/CC exhibits outstanding HER activity and strong stability in 1 M KOH.•The introduction of V atoms causes defect and induces the change in charge states.•V-NiCoP/CC outperforms the corresponding transition monometallic phosphides. Though transition metal phosphides (TMPs) have been applied as an efficient and cost-effective catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), their large-scale application is still restrained by their lack of activity and durability. In this work, a novel vanadium doped nickel cobalt phosphide catalyst supported on carbon cloth (V-NiCoP/CC) is fabricated by a facile hydrothermal and phosphate method. Remarkably, V-NiCoP/CC only need the overpotential of 52 mV to drive 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH solution, which is superior to many state-of-art transition monometallic phosphides electrocatalysts. Meanwhile, V-NiCoP/CC exhibits a low tafel slope of 51.2 mV dec-1 and superior stability in 2000 CV cycles and 40 h of long-term stability test. Furthermore, this work verifies that doping heteroatom provides new opportunities to enhance the HER performance of transition bimetallic phosphides with effect on their morphology and electrochemical properties.