Issue 19, 2020

Acid-directed morphology control of molybdenum carbide embedded in a nitrogen doped carbon matrix for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

As a promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst, molybdenum carbide materials have attracted great attention owing to their Pt-like electronic structure. The morphology control of Mo2C usually involves complicated procedures, and porous structures are desirable for electrocatalytic applications. Herein, we present a facile acid-directed synthesis strategy for β-Mo2C nanoparticles embedded in a nitrogen doped carbon matrix (β-Mo2C/NC) with controllable morphologies through heat treatment of Mo–melamine complexes for electrocatalytic HER applications. It is found that the applied acid can effectively tune the morphology of Mo–melamine complexes, and thus the final β-Mo2C/NC materials. With oxalic acid, the as-prepared β-Mo2C/NC materials possess a porous structure and high surface area (23.3 m2 g−1), leading to distinguished electrocatalytic HER activities in both acidic and alkaline media, requiring low overpotentials of 152 and 135 mV vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) to reach a current density of −10 mA cm−2, with a Tafel slope of 58 and 56 mV dec−1, respectively. The synthetic route proposed in this work may offer a new thinking for the morphology-controllable synthesis of transition metal carbide materials for heterogeneous (electro)catalysis applications.

Graphical abstract: Acid-directed morphology control of molybdenum carbide embedded in a nitrogen doped carbon matrix for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
26 May 2020
Accepted
13 Aug 2020
First published
15 Aug 2020

Inorg. Chem. Front., 2020,7, 3620-3626

Acid-directed morphology control of molybdenum carbide embedded in a nitrogen doped carbon matrix for enhanced electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

J. Wang, S. Li, J. Hu, S. Niu, Y. Li and P. Xu, Inorg. Chem. Front., 2020, 7, 3620 DOI: 10.1039/D0QI00615G

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements