Gradient Heating Epitaxial Growth Gives Well Lattice-Matched Mo2 C-Mo2 N Heterointerfaces that Boost Both Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Water Vapor Splitting

Youzi Zhang; Peng Guo; Shaohui Guo; Xu Xin; Yijin Wang; Wenjing Huang; Maohuai Wang; Bowen Yang; Ana Jorge Sobrido; Jahan B Ghasemi; Jiaguo Yu; Xuanhua Li

doi:10.1002/anie.202209703

Gradient Heating Epitaxial Growth Gives Well Lattice-Matched Mo₂ C-Mo₂ N Heterointerfaces that Boost Both Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution and Water Vapor Splitting

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2022 Nov 21;61(47):e202209703. doi: 10.1002/anie.202209703. Epub 2022 Oct 25.

Authors

Youzi Zhang¹, Peng Guo¹, Shaohui Guo², Xu Xin¹, Yijin Wang¹, Wenjing Huang³, Maohuai Wang⁴, Bowen Yang^{5

6}, Ana Jorge Sobrido⁷, Jahan B Ghasemi⁸, Jiaguo Yu⁹, Xuanhua Li¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China.
² College of Chemistry, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China.
⁵ Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, 75120, Uppsala, Sweden.
⁶ Laboratory of Photomolecular Science, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, School of Basic Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 1015 Lausanne (Switzerland).
⁷ Materials Research Institute, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, University of Tehran, District 6, Tehran, Iran.
⁹ Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China.

PMID: 36070972
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202209703

Abstract

An optimized approach to producing lattice-matched heterointerfaces for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution has not yet been reported. Herein, we present the synthesis of lattice-matched Mo₂ C-Mo₂ N heterostructures using a gradient heating epitaxial growth method. The well lattice-matched heterointerface of Mo₂ C-Mo₂ N generates near-zero hydrogen-adsorption free energy and facilitates water dissociation in acid and alkaline media. The lattice-matched Mo₂ C-Mo₂ N heterostructures have low overpotentials of 73 mV and 80 mV at 10 mA cm^-2 in acid and alkaline solutions, respectively, comparable to commercial Pt/C. A novel photothermal-electrocatalytic water vapor splitting device using the lattice-matched Mo₂ C-Mo₂ N heterostructure as a hydrogen evolution electrocatalyst displays a competitive cell voltage for electrocatalytic water splitting.

Keywords: Heterointerfaces; Hydrogen Evolution; Lattice-Matched; Mo2C−Mo2N; Water Vapor Splitting.

Abstract

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