Issue 21, 2016

Ditungsten carbide nanoparticles encapsulated by ultrathin graphitic layers with excellent hydrogen-evolution electrocatalytic properties

Abstract

The development of efficient non-precious-metal electrocatalysts towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), with superior activity and stability, remains a great challenge in the area of renewable energy. In this work, we demonstrated a facile, one-step protocol to synthesize ultrathin graphitic layer (GL)-encapsulated ultrafine ditungsten carbide (W2C) nanoparticles (W2C@GL) with sizes smaller than 10 nm, exhibiting a superior HER activity in acidic solution. An efficient W2C phase, along with an improved electron transfer process by GL wrapping, cooperatively leads to a small Tafel slope of 68 mV dec−1 and a large exchange current density of 0.24 mA cm−2 for W2C@GL, which exceeds the previous W2C materials by far. Over 91% of the current density is maintained after over 8 h of operation, which indicates a good stability of this hybrid catalyst. Thus, W2C@GL with these excellent properties has been among the best non-noble metal HER electrocatalyst reported to date.

Graphical abstract: Ditungsten carbide nanoparticles encapsulated by ultrathin graphitic layers with excellent hydrogen-evolution electrocatalytic properties

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Feb 2016
Accepted
22 Apr 2016
First published
26 Apr 2016

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016,4, 8204-8210

Ditungsten carbide nanoparticles encapsulated by ultrathin graphitic layers with excellent hydrogen-evolution electrocatalytic properties

Y. Zhou, R. Ma, P. Li, Y. Chen, Q. Liu, G. Cao and J. Wang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 8204 DOI: 10.1039/C6TA01601D

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