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Biomass-derived electrocatalytic composites for hydrogen evolution

2013; Royal Society of Chemistry; Volume: 6; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1039/c3ee40596f

1754-5706

Wei‐Fu Chen, Shilpa Iyer, S. Venkatakrishna Iyer, Kotaro Sasaki, Chiu Hui Wang, Yimei Zhu, James T. Muckerman, Etsuko Fujita,

MXene and MAX Phase Materials

The production of hydrogen from water electrolysis calls for an efficient non-precious-metal catalyst to make the process economically viable because of the high cost and the limited supply of the currently used platinum catalysts. Here we present such a catalyst made from earth-abundant molybdenum and common, humble soybeans (MoSoy). This catalyst, composed of a catalytic β-Mo2C phase and an acid-proof γ-Mo2N phase, drives the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) with low overpotentials, and is highly durable in a corrosive acidic solution over a period exceeding 500 hours. When supported on graphene sheets, the MoSoy catalyst exhibits very fast charge transfer kinetics, and its performance rivals that of noble-metal catalysts such as Pt for hydrogen production. These findings prove that the soybean (as well as other high-protein biomass) is a useful material for the generation of catalysts incorporating an abundant transition metal, thereby challenging the exclusivity of platinum catalysts in the hydrogen economy.