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Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Reverse Microemulsion-mediated Synthesis of Monometallic and Bimetallic Early Transition Metal Carbide and Nitride Nanoparticles
Published on: November 27, 2015
Boosting oxygen evolution through phase and electronic modulation of highly dispersed tungsten carbide with nickel
Shuanglong Lu1, Junjie Wu2, Hongyin Hu1
1Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu, China.
Abstract:
Exploring efficient, stable, and earth-abundant electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great significance for clean and renewable energy conversion technologies. In this work, in situ uniform Ni-doped tungsten carbide (Ni/WCX) nanoparticles (~3 nm) on carbon nanofibers (Ni/WCX-CNFs) that were to function as efficient OER catalysts were developed. Both the composition and electronic state of tungsten carbide (WCX: W-WC-W2C) could be regulated through varied Ni coupling. Owing to the synergistic effect between Ni and WCX, the reaction kinetics were facilitated, resulting in improved OER activity with low overpotentials of η10 = 350 mV (modified glassy carbon electrode) and η10 = 335 mV (self-supporting electrode). This work opens a facile territory for the development of cost-effective and highly promising OER electrocatalysts for use in real life applications.

