Porous molybdenum carbide nano-octahedrons synthesized via confined carburization in metal-organic frameworks for efficient hydrogen production

Abstract

Electrochemical water splitting has been considered as a promising approach to produce clean and sustainable hydrogen fuel. However, the lack of high-performance and low-cost electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction hinders the large-scale application. As a new class of porous materials with tunable structure and composition, metal-organic frameworks have been considered as promising candidates to synthesize various functional materials. Here we demonstrate a metal-organic frameworks-assisted strategy for synthesizing nanostructured transition metal carbides based on the confined carburization in metal-organic frameworks matrix. Starting from a compound consisting of copper-based metal-organic frameworks host and molybdenum-based polyoxometalates guest, mesoporous molybdenum carbide nano-octahedrons composed of ultrafine nanocrystallites are successfully prepared as a proof of concept, which exhibit remarkable electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen production from both acidic and basic solutions. The present study provides some guidelines for the design and synthesis of nanostructured electrocatalysts.

Abstract

There is extensive research into non-platinum electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution. Here, the authors report a molybdenum carbide catalyst, prepared via the carburization of a copper metal-organic framework host/molybdenum-based polyoxometalates guest system, and demonstrate its catalytic activity.

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Nat Commun

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Nat Commun

Title: Nature Communications

Publisher: Nature Pub. Group

ISSN (Electronic): 2041-1723

Publication date (Electronic): 11 March 2015

Volume: 6

Affiliations

[1 ]School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University , 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore

Author notes

[a ] xwlou@ 123456ntu.edu.sg

[*]

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Article

Publisher Item ID: ncomms7512

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7512

PMC ID: 4382699

PubMed ID: 25758159

Copyright statement: Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.

License:

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Categories

Subject: Article