4.7 Article

Melamine-assisted synthesis of ultrafine Mo2C/Mo2N@N-doped carbon nanofibers for enhanced alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction activity

Journal

SCIENCE CHINA-MATERIALS
Volume 64, Issue 5, Pages 1150-1158

Publisher

SCIENCE PRESS
DOI: 10.1007/s40843-020-1511-7

Keywords

Mo2C; hydrogen evolution reaction; heterostructure; ultrafine; nanofibers

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [51932011, 51872334, 51874326, 51572299]
  2. Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province for Distinguished Young Scholars [2018JJ1036]
  3. Independent Exploration and Innovation Project for graduate students of the Central South University [2019zzts049]

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The ultrafine Mo2C/Mo2N heterostructure confined in N-doped carbon nanofibers (N-CNFs) obtained by a melamine-assisted method shows enhanced electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction.
Noble metal-free electrocatalysts with high activity are highly desirable for the large-scale application of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Mo2C-based nanomaterials have been proved as a promising alternative to noble metal-based electrocatalysts owing to the Pt-resembled d-band density and optimal intermediates-adsorption properties. However, the aggregation and excessive growth of crystals often occur during their high-temperature synthesis procedure, leading to low catalytic utilization. In this study, the ultrafine Mo2C/Mo2N heterostructure with large surface and interface confined in the N-doped carbon nanofibers (N-CNFs) was obtained by a melamine-assisted method. The synergistic effect of Mo2C/Mo2N heterostructure and plenty active sites exposed on the surface of ultrafine nanocrystals improves the electrocatalytic activity. Meanwhile, the N-CNFs ensure fast charge transfer and high structural stability during reactions. Moreover, the in-situ synthesis method strengthens the interfacial coupling interactions between Mo2C/Mo2N heterostructure and N-CNFs, further enhancing the electronic conductivity and electrocatalytic activity. Owing to these advantages, Mo2C/Mo2N@N-CNFs exhibit excellent HER performance with a low overpotential of 75 mV at a current density of 10 mV cm(-2) in alkaline solution, superior to the single phased Mo2C counterpart and recently reported Mo2C/Mo2N based catalysts. This study highlights a new effective strategy to design efficient electrocatalysts via integrating heterostructure, nanostructure and carbon modification.

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