Abstract
Economically viable hydrogen production by water electrolysis requires an inexpensive and efficient electrocatalyst Transition metal carbides (TMCs) have many merits such as low price, platinum-like catalytic activity, high physical stability, and electrical conductivity. This review presents strategies for improving the catalytic activity of TMCs. It highlights synthesis using nanostructuring by inorganic-organic complexes and carbon supports to increase the number of active sites and to facilitate mass transport, and modification of electronic configuration by heteroatom doping, heterostructure, and phase control to increase intrinsic activity. The review concludes with an outlook on challenges to achieving practical TMC catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (No. 20182010600430).
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Jinwoo Lee received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D degrees from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of Seoul National University (SNU), Korea, in 1998, 2000, and 2003, respectively. After postdoctoral research at SNU (with Prof. Taeghwan Hyeon) and Cornell University (with Prof. Ulrich Wiesner), he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (2008-2018). In 2018, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He is interested in the synthesis and application of designed nano-functional materials for energy conversion and storage devices.
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Jun, H., Kim, S. & Lee, J. Development strategies in transition metal carbide for hydrogen evolution reaction: A review. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 37, 1317–1330 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-020-0612-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-020-0612-4