Nitrogen-doped carbon wrapped Co-Mo2C dual Mott–Schottky nanosheets with large porosity for efficient water electrolysis

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Citation
Zhang, P., Liu, Y., Liang, T., Ang, E. H., Zhang, X., Ma, F., & Dai, Z. (2021). Nitrogen-doped carbon wrapped Co-Mo2C dual Mott–Schottky nanosheets with large porosity for efficient water electrolysis. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 284, Article 119738. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119738
Author
Zhang, Pengfei
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Liu, Yaoda
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Liang, Tingting
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Ang, Edison Huixiang 
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Zhang, Xu
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Ma, Fei
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Dai, Zhengfei
Abstract
Efficient, inexpensive and stable electrocatalysts are challenging and desperately required in order to complement the water electrolysis of noble metal catalysts. Herein, a porous nitrogen-doped carbon wrapped Co-Mo2C dual Mott–Schottky heterostructure has been successfully fabricated by carbonization of Co-Zn bimetal metal-organic framework (MOF) for water electrolysis. The heterostructure is found to feature with Co and Mo2C nanoparticles uniformly encapsulated in the highly porous leaf-like N-doped carbon nanosheet matrix. Such a thin porous dual-Mott–Schottky configuration can afford abundant surface active sites and the boosted electron transfer to promote the water splitting. As for hydrogen/oxygen evolution reaction (HER/OER), it has demonstrated fast kinetics and low overpotentials of 92 mV (HER) and 338 mV (OER) at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 in 1 M KOH. Furthermore, the overall water splitting is stably delivered with a low cell voltage of 1.68 V at 10 mA cm-2 in 1 M KOH. Density function theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate that the interface correlation is favorable to water transfer by electron and speeds up adsorption and water dissociation. The work here opens up interesting possibilities for the rational design and innovation of MOF derived Mott–Schottky electrocatalysts for highly efficient water electrolysis.
Keywords
Date Issued
2021
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal
Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
DOI
10.1016/j.apcatb.2020.119738
Grant ID
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51802252)
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51771144)
Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant no. 2020JM-032)
Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant no. 2019TD-020)
Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant no. 2017JZ015)
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant no. BK20180237)
111 project 2.0 (BP2018008)
Funding Agency
Central South University, Changsha