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Vol. 15 (2023)

Synergistic Effect of Dual-Doped Carbon on Mo2C Nanocrystals Facilitates Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01135-0
Min Zhou
School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, People’s Republic of China
Xiaoli Jiang
School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, People’s Republic of China
Weijie Kong
College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, People’s Republic of China
Hangfei Li
College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, People’s Republic of China
Fei Lu
College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225002, People’s Republic of China
Xin Zhou
Department of Chemical Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal, Montréal, QC H3C 3A7, Canada
Yagang Zhang
School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Yagang Zhang

ygzhang@uestc.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 15 (2023), Article Number: 166

Abstract

Molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) materials are promising electrocatalysts with potential applications in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to low cost and Pt-like electronic structures. Nevertheless, their HER activity is usually hindered by the strong hydrogen binding energy. Moreover, the lack of water-cleaving sites makes it difficult for the catalysts to work in alkaline solutions. Here, we designed and synthesized a B and N dual-doped carbon layer that encapsulated on Mo2C nanocrystals (Mo2C@BNC) for accelerating HER under alkaline condition. The electronic interactions between the Mo2C nanocrystals and the multiple-doped carbon layer endow a near-zero H adsorption Gibbs free energy on the defective C atoms over the carbon shell. Meanwhile, the introduced B atoms afford optimal H2O adsorption sites for the water-cleaving step. Accordingly, the dual-doped Mo2C catalyst with synergistic effect of non-metal sites delivers superior HER performances of a low overpotential (99 mV@10 mA cm−2) and a small Tafel slope (58.1 mV dec−1) in 1 M KOH solution. Furthermore, it presents a remarkable activity that outperforming the commercial 10% Pt/C catalyst at large current density, demonstrating its applicability in industrial water splitting. This study provides a reasonable design strategy towards noble-metal-free HER catalysts with high activity.


Highlights:


1 The B and N dual-doped carbon layer that encapsulated on Mo2C nanocrystals (Mo2C@BNC) were fabricated for accelerating HER under alkaline condition.
2 Theoretical calculations reveal that the H2O could be decomposed spontaneously over the introduced B sites, and the defective C atoms in the dual-doped carbon layer provide the best H binding sites.
3 The optimized dual doped Mo2C catalyst with synergistic effect of non-metal sites delivers superior HER performances.

Keywords

Molybdenum carbide Hydrogen evolution reaction Dual-doped Synergistic effect Superior performances
Zhou, Min, Xiaoli Jiang, Weijie Kong, Hangfei Li, Fei Lu, Xin Zhou, and Yagang Zhang. 2023. “Synergistic Effect of Dual-Doped Carbon on Mo2C Nanocrystals Facilitates Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution”. Nano-Micro Letters 15 (July):166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01135-0.
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