First Author: Liu Mengmeng
Corresponding Author: Ye Sheng
Title: Accelerating H Desorption of Hollow Mo2C Nanoreactors via In-Situ Grown Carbon Dots for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution*
Impact Factor: 14.0
Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jechem.2024.04.045
01. Introduction of Professor Ye Sheng
Professor Ye Sheng has published 58 related papers in international journals such as Joule, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Adv. Mater., Adv. Funct. Mater., and others, with a total citation count of over 3,200. In 2018, he was selected for the China Postdoctoral Innovation Talent Support Program (“Bo Xin Program”), and in 2023, he was named a Top Young Talent of Anhui Province. He has led projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation’s General Program, the National Natural Science Foundation’s Youth Science Fund, and the Anhui Provincial Key Research and Development Plan.
02. Research Background
To address the environmental pollution and energy crisis caused by fossil fuel consumption, there is an urgent need to develop clean and renewable energy sources. Hydrogen energy, due to its zero carbon emissions, renewability, and high energy density, is considered the best alternative to fossil fuels. Electrocatalytic water splitting has emerged as a promising hydrogen production technology and has been widely studied. Currently, precious metal-based catalysts such as Ir, Ru, and Pt are commonly used in hydrogen production research. However, their limited reserves and high costs hinder their widespread application. Therefore, developing economical and efficient non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts is imperative.
03. Abstract of the Paper
Molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) has an electronic structure similar to platinum and is a promising non-precious metal catalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the strong H* adsorption on Mo sites hinders the improvement of HER performance. In this study, we synthesized monodispersed hollow Mo2C nanoreactors, in which carbon dots (CDs) were in-situ grown on the Mo2C surface via carburization reactions. Through finite element simulation and analysis, we demonstrated that CD@Mo2C exhibited better mesoscopic diffusion properties compared to pure Mo2C. The optimized CD@Mo2C nanoreactors showed excellent HER performance in alkaline electrolyte, with a low overpotential of 57 mV at 10 mA cm², outperforming most Mo2C-based electrocatalysts. Furthermore, Raman and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses confirmed that CD@Mo2C maintained excellent electrochemical stability over 240 hours. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that the carbon dots shifted the d-band center of CD@Mo2C away from the Fermi level, facilitating water dissociation and H* desorption. This study provides a reasonable strategy for designing high-activity Mo-based HER electrocatalysts by modulating the strength of the Mo-H bond.
04. Figures and Analysis
05. Equipment Used in This Study
The box furnace used in the experiments by Professor Ye Sheng’s research group was provided by Kemi Instrument. The paper specifically acknowledges Anhui Kemi Instrument Co., Ltd. for their choice and recognition of Kemi Instruments.
