Ni-Directed biphase N-doped Mo2C as an efficient hydrogen evolution catalyst in both acidic and alkaline conditions

Cheng-Feng Du; Yaxin Wang; Xiangyuan Zhao; Jinjin Wang; Xiaomei Wang; Weigang Wang; Hong Yu

doi:10.1039/d2dt00449f

Ni-Directed biphase N-doped Mo₂C as an efficient hydrogen evolution catalyst in both acidic and alkaline conditions

Dalton Trans. 2022 Apr 20;51(16):6464-6472. doi: 10.1039/d2dt00449f.

Authors

Cheng-Feng Du^{1

2}, Yaxin Wang¹, Xiangyuan Zhao^{1

2}, Jinjin Wang¹, Xiaomei Wang¹, Weigang Wang¹, Hong Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center of Advanced Lubrication and Seal Materials, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710072, P. R. China. yh@nwpu.edu.cn.
² Northwestern Polytechnical University Chongqing Technology innovation Center, Chongqing, 400000, P. R. China.

PMID: 35393992
DOI: 10.1039/d2dt00449f

Abstract

The development of efficient and low-cost catalysts is of great significance for the future application of the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a series of Ni,N co-doped Mo₂C nanostructures (Ni_x-Mo₂C/N) with different Ni content levels are fabricated. The phase-directing effect of Ni on Mo₂C/N is observed, which is in charge of the phase transformation of Mo₂C/N from an α- to a β-phase. At the optimized Ni-doping level, biphase Ni₁₅-Mo₂C/N exhibits outstanding HER activity under both acidic and alkaline conditions. In particular, under alkaline conditions, Ni₁₅-Mo₂C/N delivers an overpotential of only 105.0 mV, accompanied by a low Tafel slope of 44.96 mV dec^-1. The performance is comparable to commercial 20% Pt/C and higher than most state-of-the-art Mo₂C-based catalysts as well.