A frogspawn inspired twin Mo2C/Ni composite with a conductive fibrous network as a robust bifunctional catalyst for advanced anion exchange membrane electrolyzers

Zhongmin Wan; Linqing Wang; Yuheng Zhou; Siyuan Xu; Jing Zhang; Xi Chen; Shi Li; Changjie Ou; Xiangzhong Kong

doi:10.1039/d3nr06242b

A frogspawn inspired twin Mo₂C/Ni composite with a conductive fibrous network as a robust bifunctional catalyst for advanced anion exchange membrane electrolyzers

Nanoscale. 2024 Mar 14;16(11):5845-5854. doi: 10.1039/d3nr06242b.

Authors

Zhongmin Wan^{1

2}, Linqing Wang^{1

2}, Yuheng Zhou^{1

2}, Siyuan Xu^{1

2}, Jing Zhang^{1

2}, Xi Chen^{1

2}, Shi Li^{1

2}, Changjie Ou^{1

2}, Xiangzhong Kong^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Mechanical Engineering, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414006, China. xzhkong@hotmail.com.
² Institute of New Energy, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414006, China.

PMID: 38439677
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr06242b

Abstract

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) is considered one of the most cost-effective methods for producing green hydrogen. However, the performance of AEMWE is still restrained by the slow reaction kinetics and poor ion/electron transport of catalysts. Herein, inspired by frogspawn, Mo₂C nanoparticles coupled with Ni were in situ embedded into a N-doped porous carbon nanofiber network (Mo₂C/NCNTs@Ni) by chemical crosslinking electrospinning combined with carbonization. The unique bionic structure can guarantee favorable overall structural flexibility and fast ion/electron transport kinetics. As a result of the robust hydrogen binding energy of Mo₂C, as well as the synergistic impact between Ni and Mo₂C nanoparticles and the conductive network resembling frogspawn, the catalyst developed demonstrates excellent performance in both the HER and OER. When employed as a bifunctional catalyst in water electrolysis, Mo₂C/NCNTs@Ni delivers overpotentials of 155 mV and 320 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 for the HER and OER, respectively. In addition, the Mo₂C/NCNTs@Ni also displays excellent long-term durability during a continuous operation test under different currents for 50 h. The assembled AEMWE electrolyzers with Mo₂C/NCNTs@Ni as both the anode and cathode can achieve a current density of 82.5 mA cm^-2 at 1.99 V, indicating great potential for industrial water splitting. These results give an insight for the development of advanced bifunctional electrocatalysts for the next generation of green and efficient H₂ production by water electrolysis.