In Situ Synthesis of MoP Nanoflakes Intercalated N-Doped Graphene Nanobelts from MoO3 -Amine Hybrid for High-Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Chao Huang; Chaoran Pi; Xuming Zhang; Kang Ding; Ping Qin; Jijiang Fu; Xiang Peng; Biao Gao; Paul K Chu; Kaifu Huo

doi:10.1002/smll.201800667

In Situ Synthesis of MoP Nanoflakes Intercalated N-Doped Graphene Nanobelts from MoO₃ -Amine Hybrid for High-Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Small. 2018 Jun;14(25):e1800667. doi: 10.1002/smll.201800667. Epub 2018 May 10.

Authors

Chao Huang^{1

2}, Chaoran Pi¹, Xuming Zhang¹, Kang Ding¹, Ping Qin¹, Jijiang Fu¹, Xiang Peng², Biao Gao¹, Paul K Chu², Kaifu Huo³

Affiliations

¹ The State Key Laboratory of Refractories and Metallurgy, Institute of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, China.
² Department of Physics and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China.
³ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (WNLO) School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.

PMID: 29749126
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201800667

Abstract

Molybdenum phosphide (MoP) is a promising non-noble-metal electrocatalyst in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), but practical implementation is impeded by the sluggish HER kinetics and poor chemical stability. Herein, a novel high-efficiency HER electrocatalyst comprising MoP nanoflakes intercalated nitrogen-doped graphene nanobelts (MoP/NG), which are synthesized by one-step thermal phosphiding organic-inorganic hybrid dodecylamine (DDA) inserted MoO₃ nanobelts, is reported. The intercalated DDA molecules are in situ carbonized into the NG layer and the sandwiched MoO₃ layer is converted into MoP nanoflakes which are intercalated between the NG layers forming the alternatingly stacked MoP/NG hybrid nanobelts. The MoP nanoflakes provide abundant edge sites and the sandwiched MoP/NG hybrid enables rapid ion/electron transport thus yielding excellent electrochemical activity and stability for HER. The MoP/NG shows a low overpotential of 94 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 , small Tafel slope of 50.1 mV dec^-1 , and excellent electrochemical stability with 99.5% retention for over 22 h.

Keywords: electrocatalysts; hydrogen evolution reaction; layer-by-layer structure; molybdenum phosphides; sandwiched nanobelts.