Controllable synthesis of Mo2C with different morphology and application to electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

He-Qiang Chang; Guo-Hua Zhang; Kuo-Chih Chou

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac3e33

Controllable synthesis of Mo₂C with different morphology and application to electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction

Nanotechnology. 2021 Dec 15;33(10). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac3e33.

Authors

He-Qiang Chang^{1

2}, Guo-Hua Zhang^{1

2}, Kuo-Chih Chou^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Metallurgy, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Green Recovery and Extraction of Rare and Precious Metals, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 34844227
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac3e33

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effect of precursors and synthesis strategies on catalytic ability of Mo₂C in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), four kinds of Mo₂C were synthesized using two kinds of MoO₃by two strategies. Compared with the one-step direct carbonization strategy, Mo₂C with a large special surface area and a better performance could be synthesized by the two-step strategy composed of a nitridation reaction and a carbonization reaction. Additionally, the as-prepared porous Mo₂C nanobelts (NBs) exhibit good electrocatalytic performance with a small overpotential of 165 mV (0.5 M H₂SO₄) and 124 mV (1 M KOH) at 10 mA cm^-2, as well as a Tafel slope of 58 mV dec^-1(0.5 M H₂SO₄) and 59 mV dec^-1(1 M KOH). The excellent catalytic activity is ascribed to the nano crystallites and porous structure. What's more, the belt structure also facilitates the charge transport in the materials during the electrocatalytic HER process. Therefore, the two-step strategy provides a new insight into the structural design with superior performance for electrocatalytic HER.

Keywords: electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction; molybdenum carbide; morphology control; nanobelt; porous structure.