Regulating Hydrogen/Oxygen Species Adsorption via Built-in Electric Field -Driven Electron Transfer Behavior at the Heterointerface for Efficient Water Splitting.
Wenjie ZhangLei YangZhi LiGuangzhi NieXuejie CaoZizheng FangXiaojun WangSeeram RamakrishnaYunze LongLifang JiaoPublished in: Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) (2024)
Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) plays a crucial role in the realization of a hydrogen economy. The design and development of efficient and stable bifunctional catalysts for both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are pivotal to achieving high-efficiency AWE. Herein, WC 1-x /Mo 2 C nanoparticle-embedded carbon nanofiber (WC 1-x /Mo 2 C@CNF) with abundant interfaces is successfully designed and synthesized. Benefiting from the electron transfer behavior from Mo 2 C to WC 1-x , the electrocatalysts of WC 1-x /Mo 2 C@CNF exhibit superior HER and OER performance. Furthermore, when employed as anode and cathode in membrane electrode assembly devices, the WC 1-x /Mo 2 C@CNF catalyst exhibits enhanced catalytic activity and remarkable stability for 100 hours at a high current density of 200 mA cm -2 towards overall water splitting. The experimental characterizations and theoretical simulation reveal that modulation of the d-band center for WC 1-x /Mo 2 C@CNF, achieved through the asymmetric charge distribution resulting from the built-in electric field induced by work function, enables optimization of adsorption strength for hydrogen/oxygen intermediates, thereby promoting the catalytic kinetics for overall water splitting. This work provides promising strategies for designing highly active catalysts in energy conversion fields.