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In Situ CO2‑Emission Assisted Synthesis of Molybdenum Carbonitride Nanomaterial as Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst
journal contribution
posted on 2015-01-14, 00:00 authored by Yong Zhao, Kazuhide Kamiya, Kazuhito Hashimoto, Shuji NakanishiWe
reported a novel protocol to efficiently synthesize molybdenum carbonitride
(MoCN) nanomaterials with dense active sites and high surface area.
The key step in this protocol is the preparation of the catalyst precursor,
which was obtained by polymerizing diaminopyridine in the presence
of hydrogen carbonate. The abundant amino groups in the poly diaminopyridine
bound numerous Mo species via coordination bonds, resulting in the
formation of dense Mo active sites. The addition of hydrogen carbonate
to the synthesis mixture resulted in CO2 gas evolution
as the local pH decreased during polymerization. The in situ evolved
CO2 bubbles mechanically broke down the precursor into
MoCN nanomaterials with a high surface area. The synthesized MoCN
materials were demonstrated as an electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution
reaction (HER). It exhibited an HER onset potential of −0.05
V (vs RHE) and a high hydrogen production rate (at −0.14 V
vs RHE, −10 mA cm–2) and is therefore one
of the most efficient, low-cost HER catalysts reported to date.