Hussain Sajjad, Vikraman Dhanasekaran, Feroze Asad, Song Wooseok, An Ki-Seok, Kim Hyun-Seok, Chun Seung-Hyun, Jung Jongwan
Graphene Research Institute, Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea.
Department of Nano and Advanced Materials Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea.
Front Chem. 2019 Oct 25;7:716. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00716. eCollection 2019.
The synthesis of low cost, high efficacy, and durable hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts from the non-noble metal group is a major challenge. Herein, we establish a simple and inexpensive chemical reduction method for producing molybdenum carbide (MoC) and tungsten carbide (WC) nanoparticles that are efficient electrocatalysts in alkali and acid electrolytes for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). MoC exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic behavior with an overpotential of -134 mV in acid medium and of -116 mV in alkaline medium, while WC nanoparticles require an overpotential of -173 mV in acidic medium and -130 mV in alkaline medium to attain a current density of 10 mA cm. The observed results prove the capability of high- and low-pH active electrocatalysts of MoC and WC nanoparticles to be efficient systems for hydrogen production through HER water electrolysis.
从非贵金属组合成低成本、高效且耐用的析氢电催化剂是一项重大挑战。在此，我们建立了一种简单且廉价的化学还原方法来制备碳化钼（MoC）和碳化钨（WC）纳米颗粒，它们在碱性和酸性电解质中是用于析氢反应（HER）的高效电催化剂。MoC在酸性介质中过电位为 -134 mV，在碱性介质中为 -116 mV，表现出出色的电催化行为，而WC纳米颗粒在酸性介质中需要 -173 mV的过电位，在碱性介质中需要 -130 mV的过电位才能达到10 mA cm的电流密度。观察结果证明了MoC和WC纳米颗粒的高pH和低pH活性电催化剂能够成为通过HER水电解制氢的高效系统。
