Porous Molybdenum Carbide Nanostructures Synthesized on Carbon Cloth by CVD for Efficient Hydrogen Production

Molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) is a promising noble-metal-free electrocatalyst for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), due to its structural and electronic merits, such as high conductivity, metallic band states and wide pH applicability. Here, a simple CVD process was developed for synthesis of a Mo2C on carbon cloth (Mo2C@CC) electrode with carbon cloth as carbon source and MoO3 as the Mo precursor. XRD, Raman, XPS and SEM results of Mo2C@CC with different amounts of MoO3 and growth temperatures suggested a two-step synthetic mechanism, and porous Mo2C nanostructures were obtained on carbon cloth with 50 mg MoO3 at 850 degrees C (Mo2C-850(50)). With the merits of unique porous nanostructures, a low overpotential of 72 mV at current density of 10 mA cm(-2) and a small Tafel slope of 52.8 mV dec(-1) was achieved for Mo2C-850(50) in 1.0 m KOH. The dual role of carbon cloth as electrode and carbon source resulted into intimate adhesion of Mo2C on carbon cloth, offering fast electron transfer at the interface. Cyclic voltammetry measurements for 5000 cycles revealed that Mo2C@CC had excellent electrochemical stability. This work provides a novel strategy for synthesizing Mo2C and other efficient carbide electrocatalysts for HER and other applications, such as supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries.