title: Molybdenum Carbide-Embedded Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Nanosheets as Electrocatalysts for Water Splitting in Alkaline Media.
abstract: Molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) based catalysts were found to be one of the most promising electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acid media in comparison with Pt-based catalysts but were seldom investigated in alkaline media, probably due to the limited active sites, poor conductivity, and high energy barrier for water dissociation. In this work, Mo2C-embedded nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanosheets (Mo2C@2D-NPCs) were successfully achieved with the help of a convenient interfacial strategy. As a HER electrocatalyst in alkaline solution, Mo2C@2D-NPC exhibited an extremely low onset potential of ∼0 mV and a current density of 10 mA cm-2at an overpotential of ∼45 mV, which is much lower than the values of most reported HER electrocatalysts and comparable to the noble metal catalyst Pt. In addition, the Tafel slope and the exchange current density of Mo2C@2D-NPC were 46 mV decade-1and 1.14 × 10-3A cm-2, respectively, outperforming the state-of-the-art metal-carbide-based electrocatalysts in alkaline media. Such excellent HER activity was attributed to the rich Mo2C/NPC heterostructures and synergistic contribution of nitrogen doping, outstanding conductivity of graphene, and abundant active sites at the heterostructures.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Ageing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China.|School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chenbao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden , Mommsenstrasse 4, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tranca
authors.affiliation: Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden , Mommsenstrasse 4, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden , Mommsenstrasse 4, 01062 Dresden, Germany.|Theoretical Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden , Mommsenstrasse 13, 01062 Dresden, Germany.|DynAMoS (Dynamical processes in Atomic and Molecular Systems), Facultad de Fı́sica, Universidad de La Habana , San Lázaro y L, 10040 La Habana, Cuba.
authors.forename: Fermı N
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Rodrı Guez Hernández
authors.affiliation: School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yuezeng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Ageing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4090-0420
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhuang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Ageing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2319-6133
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden , Mommsenstrasse 4, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Gotthard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Seifert
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Thermal Ageing, Shanghai Jiao Tong University , 200240 Shanghai, P. R. China.|Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfaed) & Department of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, Technische Universität Dresden , Mommsenstrasse 4, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Xinliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Feng
keywords: N-doped carbon nanosheet; alkaline media; hydrogen evolution reaction; interface; molybdenum carbide