Synthesis and Characterization of Molybdenum Carbides for Electrocatalytic Applications

Abstract

The increasing demand for energy with the limited supply of resources of fossil fuels have led to the development of new materials for energy production from natural or renewable sources. The production of hydrogen by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) through electrochemical water splitting can provide a clean and renewable energy resource. The high-performance electrocatalysts are required in order to increase the efficiency of water splitting to promote the HER. Various efforts have been made in last few decades for the development of low cost electrocatalysts for HER. Among the noble-metal free catalysts, molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) is the fascinating candidate for electrocatalysis because of its low cost, high chemical stability and structural similarity to Pt group metals. Carbon support in various forms enhances the HER and electrochemical double layer capacitance (EDLC) performance. In the present work carbon supported nano Mo2C has been synthesized using different molybdenum and carbon sources. The electrochemical HER activity and EDLC performance of the synthesized products has been studied in detail. The effect of synthesis parameters and the corresponding features of the synthesized products, which also affect the electrochemical properties has been studied. Based on work done the entire study is presented in 8 chapters. Chapter 1 presents the current status of hydrogen production through HER using different techniques like photocatalysis and electrocatalysis. In both the processes, the role of catalyst for efficient HER activity has been described in this chapter. The important parameters affecting the HER activity has also been highlighted. The limitations of various developed catalysts has been discussed to improve the performance of developed materials. The basic introduction of transition metal carbides (TMCs) along with their applications is presented. A detailed discussion of Mo2C has been done considering its nature of bonding and phase transitions (and#945;- Mo2C, and#946;- Mo2C and and#947;- MoC).