Composite material WC1-x@C as a noble-metal-economic material for hydrogen evolution reaction

Improving the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) kinetics for sustainable hydrogen production requires decreasing the usage of noble metals and finding new stable co-catalysts. A new composite material based on cubic tungsten carbide embedded in the carbon matrix (WC1-x@C) was successfully prepared b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of alloys and compounds 2020-09, Vol.834, p.155116, Article 155116
Main Authors: Shanenkov, Ivan, Ivashutenko, Alexander, Shanenkova, Yuliya, Nikitin, Dmitriy, Zhu, Yukun, Li, Junzhi, Han, Wei, Sivkov, Aleksandr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arc discharge plasma
Catalysis
Catalysts
Catalytic activity
Composite materials
Cubic tungsten carbide
Electrons
HER
Hydrogen evolution reactions
Hydrogen production
Morphology
Nanostructured materials
Noble metals
Photoelectrons
Platinum
Raman spectroscopy
Reaction kinetics
Spectrum analysis
Transmission electron microscopy
Tungsten carbide
X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
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Summary:Improving the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) kinetics for sustainable hydrogen production requires decreasing the usage of noble metals and finding new stable co-catalysts. A new composite material based on cubic tungsten carbide embedded in the carbon matrix (WC1-x@C) was successfully prepared by a simple and scalable method of the plasma dynamic synthesis. The structure and morphology features were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and RAMAN spectroscopy. The as-prepared composite WC1-x@C was found to be able to play a role of a co-catalyst in HER and sufficiently improve its kinetics when modified with a small amount of platinum. The WC1-x@C composite containing only 10 wt% of platinum has almost the same catalytic activity as a commercial Pt/C catalyst. [Display omitted] •WC1-x@C composite was successfully synthesized by a plasma dynamic method.•The yield of cubic tungsten carbide phase reaches more than 90 wt %.•WC1-x is covered by 5–8 crystalline graphite layers and amorphous carbon matrix.•Even after adding 1% Pt to WC1-x@C its catalytic activity increases drastically.
ISSN:0925-8388
1873-4669
DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.155116