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

• 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
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.155116

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.