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Facile construction of N-doped Mo2C@CNT composites with 3D nanospherical structures as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

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Abstract

In this study, we synthesized nitrogen-doped Mo2C@carbon nanotube (N-Mo2C@CNT) composites via a facile one-pot method of solvothermal followed by calcination. The SEM and TEM results of N-Mo2C@CNT composites show that the sphere-shaped N-Mo2C is covered by CNTs. In addition, the electrocatalytic performances of the as-obtained N-Mo2C@CNT composites were examined towards the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic media. It is revealed that the N-Mo2C@CNT composite with optimum content of CNTs (30 mg) exhibits an excellent catalytic activity with less overpotential of 183 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and smaller Tafel slope of 73.95 mV dec−1 as compared with pure Mo2C. Furthermore, it has a good cycling stability after 1000 cycles. This enhanced activity due to the creation of more active sites, large specific surface area by better synergistic effect between the N-Mo2C and CNT. Consequently, the N-Mo2C@CNT composite is a viable alternative to the noble metal electrocatalysts for HER.

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Funding

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21676022 and 21706004) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (BHYC1701A and JD1701).

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Author notes

  1. Yali Wang and Raja Arumugam Senthil contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing Engineering Center for Hierarchical Catalysts, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yali Wang, Raja Arumugam Senthil, Junqing Pan, Yanzhi Sun, Sedahmed Osman, Abrar Khan & Xiaoguang Liu

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  1. Yali Wang
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  2. Raja Arumugam Senthil
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  3. Junqing Pan
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  7. Xiaoguang Liu
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Correspondence to Junqing Pan.

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Wang, Y., Senthil, R.A., Pan, J. et al. Facile construction of N-doped Mo2C@CNT composites with 3D nanospherical structures as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. Ionics 25, 4273–4283 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-019-02985-8

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