Abstract
Developing non-precious metal catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is crucial for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), metal-air batteries and water splitting. Here, we report a in-situ simple approach to synthesize ultra-small sized transition metal carbides (TMCs) nanoparticles coupled with nitrogen-doped carbon hybrids (TMCs/NC, including WC/NC, V 8 C 7 /NC and Mo 2 C/NC). The TMCs/NC exhibit excellent ORR and HER performances in acidic electrolyte as bi-functional catalysts. The potential of WC/NC at the current density of 3.0 mA cm −2 for ORR is 0.814 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)), which is very close to Pt/C (0.827 V), making it one of the best TMCs based ORR catalysts in acidic electrolyte. Besides, the TMCs/NC exhibit excellent performances toward HER, the Mo 2 C/NC only need an overpotential of 80 mV to drive the current density of 10 mA cm −2 , which is very close to Pt/C (37 mV), making it the competitive alternative candidate among the reported non-precious metal HER catalysts. • Confined growth ultra-small TMCs nanoparticles on the nitrogen-doped carbon. • The TMCs/NC exhibit one of the best ORR performances in acid electrolyte. • The TMCs/NC show remarkable HER performances in acid electrolyte. • The TMCs/NC possess superior durability to Pt/C toward ORR and HER.
Published Version
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