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Updated: May 15, 2026

A Simple, Low-cost, and Robust System to Measure the Volume of Hydrogen Evolved by Chemical Reactions with Aqueous Solutions
Published on: August 17, 2016
Low-cost industrially available molybdenum boride and carbide as "platinum-like" catalysts for the hydrogen evolution
Micheál D Scanlon1, Xiaojun Bian, Heron Vrubel
1Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Physique et Analytique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Station 6, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Rarely reported low-cost molybdenum boride and carbide microparticles, both of which are available in abundant quantities due to their widespread use in industry, adsorb at aqueous acid-1,2-dichloroethane interfaces and efficiently catalyse the hydrogen evolution reaction in the presence of the organic electron donor - decamethylferrocene. Kinetic studies monitoring biphasic reactions by UV/vis spectroscopy, and further evidence provided by gas chromatography, highlight (a) their superior rates of catalysis relative to other industrially significant transition metal carbides and silicides, as well as a main group refractory compound, and (b) their highly comparable rates of catalysis to Pt microparticles of similar dimensions. Insight into the catalytic processes occurring for each adsorbed microparticle was obtained by voltammetry at the liquid-liquid interface.
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