High specific surface area Mo2C nanoparticles as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution

Abstract Mo 2 C nanoparticles with high specific surface area (120 m 2  g −1 ) are successfully synthesized using a typical and low-cost monosaccharide of glucose via a facile calcination and subsequent reduction process. The HER functions of the obtained Mo 2 C nanoparticles are investigated and the effect of reduction time in hydrogen is also discussed. It is found that η-MoC can be obtained at 800 °C with a reduction time of 10 min, but the formation of β-Mo 2 C phase requires more than 20 min. Moreover, the β-Mo 2 C obtained with a reduction time of 20 min exhibits the best HER activity with a small Tafel slope of 55 mV dec −1 and a large current density of 60 mA cm −2 at −200 mV, which is among the best records over Mo 2 C-based HER catalysts.