Molybdenum Carbide-Embedded Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Nanosheets as Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting in Alkaline Media

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) based catalysts were found to be one of the most promising electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acid media in comparison with Pt-based catalysts but were seldom investigated in alkaline media, probably due to the limited active sites, poor conductivity, and high energy barrier for water dissociation. In this work, Mo2C-embedded nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanosheets (Mo2C@2D-NPCs) were successfully achieved with the help of a convenient interfacial strategy. As a HER electrocatalyst in alkaline solution, Mo2C@2D-NPC exhibited an extremely low onset potential of ∼0 mV and a current density of 10 mA cm-2 at an overpotential of ∼45 mV, which is much lower than the values of most reported HER electrocatalysts and comparable to the noble metal catalyst Pt. In addition, the Tafel slope and the exchange current density of Mo2C@2D-NPC were 46 mV decade-1 and 1.14 × 10-3 A cm-2, respectively, outperforming the state-of-the-art metal-carbide-based electrocatalysts in alkaline media. Such excellent HER activity was attributed to the rich Mo2C/NPC heterostructures and synergistic contribution of nitrogen doping, outstanding conductivity of graphene, and abundant active sites at the heterostructures.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3933-3942
Number of pages10
JournalACS Nano
Volume11
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 85018623742
PubMed 28291319

Keywords

Sustainable Development Goals

Keywords

  • alkaline media, molybdenum carbide, hydrogen evolution reaction, interface, N-doped carbon nanosheet