Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2019
Abstract
Hydrogen is considered one of the cleanest energy sources. Water spitting is one of the efficient ways to produce hydrogen as a fuel at the industrial level. Water splitting via electrolysis requires an efficient electrocatalyst to reduce the voltage required for water splitting. Currently, precious metals such as platinum are considered as one of the most efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen production via electrolysis of water. The current challenge is to find a cost-effective alternative for this process. Molybdenum and carbon are low cost and abundant materials which could be used for the synthesis of cost-effective electrocatalysts for hydrogen production. In this work, we used almond as a source for carbon for the synthesis of molybdenum carbide for sustainable and affordable hydrogen production. X-ray diffraction confirmed the phase purity of the synthesized molybdenum carbide. Electrocatalytic activities of molybdenum carbide were investigated in detail. It was observed that molybdenum carbide needs a small voltage to generate hydrogen via electrolysis process. Molybdenum carbide showed an overpotential of 117 mV and 180 mV in alkaline and acidic media, respectively to achieve a current density of 10 mA/cm2, which are among the best-reported results. Our study suggests that earth-abundant materials could be used for the synthesis of highly efficient electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting to generate hydrogen as a clean fuel.
Recommended Citation
Morey, Kinsey; Morey, Tucker; Neria, Brooks; Siam, Khamis; and Kahol, Pawan K., "Almond Based Electrocatalyst for Fuel Cell Applications" (2019). Posters. 42.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/posters_2019/42
