title: Self-Assembly of Hierarchical Ni-Mo-Polydopamine Microflowers and their Conversion to a Ni-Mo2C/C Composite for Water Splitting.
abstract: With the aim of finding efficient non-noble metal catalysts for water splitting, hierarchical Ni-Mo-polydopamine microflowers (Ni-Mo2C/C MF) were synthesized through a facile aqueous-phase reaction at room temperature. NiMoO4nanowires were utilized as both Ni and Mo source; they can complex with dopamine to form a hierarchical structure and affect the scale of the final product. The energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) measurement of Ni-Mo2C/C microflowers (MF) shows a high content of Mo2C and Ni (>90 wt %). For the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), the Ni-Mo2C/C MF displays a low overpotential of 99 mV at a current density of -10 mA cm-2and a small Tafel slope of 73 mV dec-1in 1.0 m KOH. By comparison with Mo2C/C microspheres (MS), the nanosized Ni-doped particles offer more active sites and enhance the kinetic performance. This facile synthesis strategy is also suitable for preparing other metal-Mo2C/C composites that can be used in the fields of catalysis and energy conversion.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lianshan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chunli
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5510-2851
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qujiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Resource Utilization, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130022, P. R. China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: electrocatalysis; hydrogen evolution reaction; molybdenum carbide; nanostructures; nickel doping