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High coercivity cobalt carbide nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction

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Abstract

Cobalt carbide nanoparticles (NPs), as a typical carbide material, have attracted extensive attention in the fields of magnetism and electrochemistry. Herein, we adopted a modified solution route by pyrolysis long-chain amines at high temperatures to obtain Co2C NPs, in which different forms of Co NPs were used as precursors. The results reveal that no matter what the structure of the precursor and the type of long-chain amine, single-phase Co2C NPs with good crystallinity are obtained. At the same time, carbonization of hexagonal close packed (hcp) cobalt as the precursor gives the materials high magnetic anisotropy, exhibiting a large coercivity (∼ 1,300 Oe) on the nanoscale. In terms of catalytic properties, benefiting from intrinsically high activity of Co2C NPs, the material demonstrates superior hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance, with optimal overpotential as low as 73 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm−2. This provides new ideas for the further development of transition metal carbides (TMCs) and the improvement of their magnetic and electrocatalytic properties.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51872111) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jilin Province (No. 20190201253JC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Yaqin Qie, Yixuan Liu, Fanqi Kong, Zhilin Yang & Hua Yang

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  1. Yaqin Qie
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  2. Yixuan Liu
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  3. Fanqi Kong
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  4. Zhilin Yang
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  5. Hua Yang
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Correspondence to Hua Yang.

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Qie, Y., Liu, Y., Kong, F. et al. High coercivity cobalt carbide nanoparticles as electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction. Nano Res. 15, 3901–3906 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-4036-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-4036-1

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