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Research Article | Open Access

Self-supported porous heterostructure WC/WO3-x ceramic electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic and alkaline media

Feihong WANGa, Binbin DONGb, Junwei WANGc, Nianwang KEa, Chuntian TANa, Anding HUANGa, Yutong WUa, Luyuan HAOa, Liangjun YINd, Xin XUa( ), Yuxi XIANe( ), Simeon AGATHOPOULOSf
CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Key Laboratory of Special Protective Materials, Luoyang Institute of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China
Yangtze Delta Region Institute (Huzhou), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Huzhou 313001, China
School of Energy Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
CAS Key Laboratory of Mechanical Behaviors and Design of Materials, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, Ioannina GR-451 10, Greece
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Graphical Abstract

Abstract

Tungsten carbide (WC)-based materials are widely considered as the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) process catalysts due to their "Pt-like" electronic structure. Nonetheless, traditional powder electrodes have a high cost, and display problems related to the process itself and the poor stability over operation time. This paper presented a self-supported asymmetric porous ceramic electrode with WO3-x whiskers formed in situ on the walls of the finger-like holes and membrane surface, which was prepared by combining phase inversion tape-casting, pressureless sintering, and thermal treatment in a CO2 atmosphere. The optimized ceramic electrode displayed good catalytic HER activity and outstanding stability at high current densities. More specifically, it demonstrated the lowest overpotentials of 107 and 123 mV and the lowest Tafel slopes of 59.3 and 72.4 mV·dec-1 at 10 mA·cm-2 in acidic and alkaline media, respectively. This superior performance was ascribed to the structure of the ceramic membrane and the charge transfer efficiency, which was favored by the in situ developed WC/WO3-x heterostructure and the oxygen vacancies.

Keywords

hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)porous ceramic membraneWC/WO3-x heterostructureself-supported electrodeoxygen vacancies

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Journal of Advanced Ceramics
Volume 11 Issue 8,
August 2022
Pages 1208-1221
DOI: 10.1007/s40145-022-0604-4
Cite this article:
WANG F, DONG B, WANG J, et al. Self-supported porous heterostructure WC/WO3-x ceramic electrode for hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic and alkaline media. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2022, 11(8): 1208-1221. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-022-0604-4

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Received: 01 January 2022
Revised: 23 April 2022
Accepted: 25 April 2022
Published: 18 July 2022
© The Author(s) 2022.

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