Facile Synthesis of Mo2C Nanocrystals Embedded in Nanoporous Carbon Network for Efficient

Facile Synthesis of Mo2C Nanocrystals Embedded in Nanoporous Carbon Network for Efficient

Hydrogen Evolution

Yuyun Chen;Yun Zhang;Yuling Ma;Tang Tang;Zhihui Dai;Jinsong Hu;Lijun Wan

【期刊名称】《中国化学（英文版）》 【年(卷),期】2017(035)006

【摘要】Exploring facile and easily-scalable methods for synthesizing earth-abundant,cost-effective and efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is essential for the mass production of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable energy carrier.We report here a simple strategy to produce Mo2C nanocrystals embedded in carbon network (Mo2C@C) by the direct pyrolysis of ammonium molybdate and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP).It is found that PVP can be effectively used as a single source to form carbides and carbon network.The long polymer chain and coordinating capability with transition metal of PVP make it possible to form connected porous carbon network and well-dispersed Mo2C nanocrystals in several nanometers.The carbonization of PVP not only effectively in-situ prevents the aggregation of Mo2C nanocrystals during their formation,but also provides conductive porous matrix.As a result,the Mo2C@C composite exhibits the superior electrocatalytic performance for HER,which can be ascribed to the large number of active sites from plenty of small Mo2C nanocrystals and the