Construction of an N-Decorated Carbon-Encapsulated W 2 C/WP Heterostructure as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution in Both Alkaline and Acidic Media

作者：Peng Wei, Xueping Sun, Min Hui Wang, Jiahao Xu, Zhimin He, Xiaogang Li, Fangyuan Cheng, Yue Xu, Qing Li, Jiantao Han, Hui Yang, Yunhui Huang · 发表于：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1021/acsami.1c16547 · 被引用次数：34 · 研究领域：Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion、Advanced battery technologies research、Fuel Cells and Related Materials

Tungsten carbide (W 2 C) has emerged as a potential alternative to noble-metal catalysts toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) owing to its Pt-like electronic configuration. However, unsatisfactory activity, dilatory electron transfer, and inefficient synthesizing methods, especially for nanoscale particles, have severely hindered its large-scale applications. Herein, a novel heterostructure composed of W 2 C and tungsten phosphide (WP) embedded in nitrogen-decorated carbon (W 2 C/WP@NC) was constructed as an efficient HER electrocatalyst. The as-prepared W 2 C/WP@NC catalyst exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic activity and robust durability toward HER both in acids and bases. More notably, the W 2 C/WP@NC catalyst demonstrates low overpotentials of 116.37 and 196.2 mV to afford a current density of 10 mA cm –2 and reveals slight potential decays of about 6.4 and 7.64% over 12 h continuous operation in bases and acids, respectively. The overall water-splitting performance was further evaluated using the W 2 C/WP@NC catalyst as the cathode and commercial RuO 2 as the anode in an electrolyzer, which can realize an overall current density of 10 mA cm –2 and maintain long durability of more than 12 h with a small cell voltage of 1.723 V. This work opens up new opportunities for exploring cost-efficient electrocatalysts in sustainable energy conversion.