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Wet-chemistry synthesis of cobalt carbide nanoparticles as highly active and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

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Abstract

Transition metal carbide (TMC) nanomaterials are promising alternatives to Pt, and are widely used as heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, a bromide-induced wet-chemistry strategy to synthesize Co2C nanoparticles (NPs) was developed. Such NPs exhibited high electrocatalytic activity (η = 181 mV for j = −10 mA·cm−2) and long-term stability (no obvious performance decrease after 4,000 cycles) for the HER. This study will pave the way for the design and fabrication of TMC NPs via a wet-chemistry method, and will have significant impacts on broader areas such as nanocatalysis and energy conversion.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21473003 and 21303119) and the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB933100). C. Y. acknowledges the financial support of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015M580011). XAS analysis was performed at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Siwei Li, Ce Yang, Zhen Yin, Hanjun Yang, Yifu Chen, Lili Lin, Mengzhu Li, Weizhen Li & Ding Ma

  2. State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic University, Tianjin, 300387, China

    Zhen Yin

  3. Israel Chemicals Limited, Shanghai, 200021, China

    Gang Hu

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  1. Siwei Li
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  2. Ce Yang
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  3. Zhen Yin
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  4. Hanjun Yang
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  5. Yifu Chen
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  6. Lili Lin
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  7. Mengzhu Li
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  8. Weizhen Li
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  9. Gang Hu
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  10. Ding Ma
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Correspondence to Ding Ma.

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These authors contributed equally to this work.

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12274_2017_1425_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Wet-chemistry synthesis of cobalt carbide nanoparticles as highly active and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

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Li, S., Yang, C., Yin, Z. et al. Wet-chemistry synthesis of cobalt carbide nanoparticles as highly active and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. Nano Res. 10, 1322–1328 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1425-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1425-6

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