Construction of an N-Decorated Carbon-Encapsulated W2C/WP Heterostructure as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution in Both Alkaline and Acidic Media

Tungsten carbide (W2C) has emerged as a potential alternative to noble-metal catalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) owing to its Pt-like electronic configuration. However, unsatisfactory activity, dilatory electron transfer, and inefficient synthesizing methods, especially for nanoscale particles, have severely hindered its large-scale applications. Herein, a novel heterostructure composed of W2C and tungsten phosphide (WP) embedded in nitrogen-decorated carbon (W2C/WP@NC ) was constructed as an efficient HER electrocatalyst. The as-prepared W2C/WP@NC catalyst exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic activity and robust durability toward HER both in acids and bases. More notably, the W2C/WP@NC catalyst demonstrates low overpotentials of 116.37 and 196.2 mV to afford a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) and reveals slight potential decays of about 6.4 and 7.64% over 12 h continuous operation in bases and acids, respectively. The overall water-splitting performance was further evaluated using the W2C/WP@NC catalyst as the cathode and commercial RuO2 as the anode in an electrolyzer, which can realize an overall current density of 10 mA cm(-2) and maintain long durability of more than 12 h with a small cell voltage of 1.723 V. This work opens up new opportunities for exploring cost-efficient electrocatalysts in sustainable energy conversion.

Automated summary

A novel heterostructure composed of W2C and WP embedded in nitrogen-decorated carbon (W2C/WP@NC) was constructed as an efficient HER electrocatalyst in this study, demonstrating remarkable electrocatalytic activity and durability in both acidic and basic conditions. Moreover, as the cathode in overall water-splitting, the W2C/WP@NC catalyst showed high current density and maintained long durability with a low cell voltage of less than 1.723 V for over 12 hours.