Preparation and electrocatalytic properties of tungsten carbide electrocatalysts
(1. Department of Applied Chemistry, Zhejiang University of Technology,
Hangzhou 310014, China;
2. Department of Materials Science and Technology,
Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China)
Hangzhou 310014, China;
2. Department of Materials Science and Technology,
Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China)
Abstract: The tungsten carbide(WC) electrocatalysts with definite phase components and high specific surface area were prepared by gas-solid reduction method. The crystal structure, phase components and electrochemical properties of the as-prepared materials were characterized by XRD, BET(Brunauer Emmett and Teller Procedure) and electrochemical test techniques. It is shown that the tungsten carbide catalysts with definite phase components can be obtained by controlling the carburizing conditions including temperature, gas flowing rate and duration time. The electrocatalysts with the major phase of W2C show higher electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction. The electrocatalysts with the major phase of WC are suitable to be used as the anodic electrocatalyst for hydrogen anodic oxidation, which exhibit higher hydrogen anodic oxidation electrocatalytic properties in HCl solutions.
Key words: tungsten carbide; electrocatalyst; electrochemical performance