Atmospheric-Pressure Synthesis of 2D Nitrogen-Rich Tungsten Nitride

Huimin Yu; Xin Yang; Xu Xiao; Ming Chen; Qinghua Zhang; Liang Huang; Jiabing Wu; Tianqi Li; Shuangming Chen; Li Song; Lin Gu; Bao Yu Xia; Guang Feng; Jia Li; Jun Zhou

doi:10.1002/adma.201805655

Atmospheric-Pressure Synthesis of 2D Nitrogen-Rich Tungsten Nitride

Adv Mater. 2018 Dec;30(51):e1805655. doi: 10.1002/adma.201805655. Epub 2018 Oct 24.

Authors

Huimin Yu¹, Xin Yang², Xu Xiao¹, Ming Chen³, Qinghua Zhang⁴, Liang Huang¹, Jiabing Wu¹, Tianqi Li¹, Shuangming Chen⁵, Li Song⁵, Lin Gu⁴, Bao Yu Xia⁶, Guang Feng³, Jia Li², Jun Zhou¹

Affiliations

¹ Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P. R. China.
² Laboratory for Computational Materials Engineering, Division of Energy and Environment, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, Guangdong, P. R. China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P. R. China.
⁴ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
⁵ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, Anhui, P. R. China.
⁶ Key laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, Hubei, P. R. China.

PMID: 30357972
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201805655

Abstract

2D transition metal nitrides, especially nitrogen-rich tungsten nitrides (W_x N_y , y > x), such as W₃ N₄ and W₂ N₃ , have a great potential for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) since the catalytic activity is largely enhanced by the abundant WN bonding. However, the rational synthesis of 2D nitrogen-rich tungsten nitrides is challenging due to the large formation energy of WN bonding. Herein, ultrathin 2D hexagonal-W₂ N₃ (h-W₂ N₃ ) flakes are synthesized at atmospheric pressure via a salt-templated method. The formation energy of h-W₂ N₃ can be dramatically decreased owing to the strong interaction and domain matching epitaxy between KCl and h-W₂ N₃ . 2D h-W₂ N₃ demonstrates an excellent catalytic activity for cathodic HER with an onset potential of -30.8 mV as well as an overpotential of -98.2 mV for 10 mA cm^-2 .

Keywords: 2D materials; atmospheric-pressure synthesis; electrocatalysis; nitrogen-rich; transition metal nitrides.

Abstract

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