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Nano Research 2017, 10(4): 1322-1328 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1425-6
Research Article | Issue | Published: 18 February 2017

Wet-chemistry synthesis of cobalt carbide nanoparticles as highly active and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Show Author's Information Siwei Li1,§,  Ce Yang1,§,  Zhen Yin1,2,§,  Hanjun Yang1,  Yifu Chen1,  Lili Lin1,  Mengzhu Li1,  Weizhen Li1,  Gang Hu3,  Ding Ma1( )
College of Chemistry and Molecular EngineeringPeking UniversityBeijing100871China
State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane ProcessesDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic UniversityTianjin300387China
Israel Chemicals LimitedShanghai200021China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
hydrogen evolution reaction, synergetic effect, Co2C nanoparticle, wet-chemistry synthesis
Cite this article:
Li S, Yang C, Yin Z, et al. Wet-chemistry synthesis of cobalt carbide nanoparticles as highly active and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction. Nano Research, 2017, 10(4): 1322-1328. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1425-6
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Transition metal carbide (TMC) nanomaterials are promising alternatives to Pt, and are widely used as heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, a bromide-induced wet-chemistry strategy to synthesize Co2C nanoparticles (NPs) was developed. Such NPs exhibited high electrocatalytic activity (η = 181 mV for j = -10 mA·cm-2) and long-term stability (no obvious performance decrease after 4, 000 cycles) for the HER. This study will pave the way for the design and fabrication of TMC NPs via a wet- chemistry method, and will have significant impacts on broader areas such as nanocatalysis and energy conversion.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Wet-chemistry synthesis of cobalt carbide nanoparticles as highly active and stable electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Show Author's information Siwei Li1,§, Ce Yang1,§, Zhen Yin1,2,§, Hanjun Yang1, Yifu Chen1, Lili Lin1, Mengzhu Li1, Weizhen Li1, Gang Hu3, Ding Ma1( )
College of Chemistry and Molecular EngineeringPeking UniversityBeijing100871China
State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane ProcessesDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin Polytechnic UniversityTianjin300387China
Israel Chemicals LimitedShanghai200021China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Transition metal carbide (TMC) nanomaterials are promising alternatives to Pt, and are widely used as heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, a bromide-induced wet-chemistry strategy to synthesize Co2C nanoparticles (NPs) was developed. Such NPs exhibited high electrocatalytic activity (η = 181 mV for j = -10 mA·cm-2) and long-term stability (no obvious performance decrease after 4, 000 cycles) for the HER. This study will pave the way for the design and fabrication of TMC NPs via a wet- chemistry method, and will have significant impacts on broader areas such as nanocatalysis and energy conversion.

Keywords: hydrogen evolution reaction, synergetic effect, Co2C nanoparticle, wet-chemistry synthesis

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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 02 November 2016
Revised: 16 December 2016
Accepted: 18 December 2016
Published: 18 February 2017
Issue date: April 2017

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21473003 and 21303119) and the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2013CB933100). C. Y. acknowledges the financial support of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015M580011). XAS analysis was performed at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

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