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i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n en e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 0 9 1 1e1 0 9 2 0
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Tungsten carbide synthesized by low-temperaturecombustion as gas diffusion electrode catalyst
Ping Li a,*, Zhiwei Liu a, Liqun Cui a, Fuqiang Zhai b, Qi Wan a, Ziliang Li a,Zhigang Zak Fang c, Alex A. Volinsky d, Xuanhui Qu a,*a Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083,
ChinabDepartament Fı́sica Aplicada, EETAC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya e BarcelonaTech, 08860 Castelldefels,
SpaincDepartment of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Utah, 135 South 1460 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USAdDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 December 2013
Received in revised form
18 April 2014
Accepted 23 April 2014
Available online 2 June 2014
Keywords:
Low-temperature combustion syn-
thesis
Tungsten carbide
Electrocatalyst
Gas diffusion electrode
* Corresponding authors. Tel.: þ86 10 823772E-mail addresses: [email protected] (P.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.04.10360-3199/Copyright ª 2014, Hydrogen Ener
a b s t r a c t
Tungsten carbide powder, which is used as the catalyst for a gas diffusion electrode, has
been prepared by low-temperature combustion synthesis for the first time. The average
particle size of the prepared tungsten carbide is 200 nm, determined by X-ray diffraction
and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The effects of the carbon/tungsten (C/W)
molar ratio on the formation of tungsten carbide and carbon content on the complete
carbonization temperature are discussed. The optimal synthesis temperature is 1100 �C,
and the optimal C/W molar ratio is 19/3. The electrocatalytic properties of tungsten carbide
for the oxygen reduction reaction are evaluated through the use of polarization curves and
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in neutral and alkaline electrolytes. The current
density of the tungsten carbide-based gas diffusion electrode is as high as 350 mA cm�2 at
0.4 V versus Hg/HgO. It is demonstrated that the tungsten carbide catalyst exhibits
excellent electrocatalytic performance, comparable with that of Pt.
Copyright ª 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rightsreserved.
Introduction
In order to improve the adverse effects of fossil fuels burning
on the environment, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels,
development of pure electric and fuel cell vehicles has become
a much sought after goal around the world. The metaleair
battery is an ideal replacement for traditional batteries, and
has attracted attention due to the relative abundance of its
86; fax: þ86 10 62334311.Li), [email protected] (X73gy Publications, LLC. Publ
source materials, simple structure, high specific power and
energy density. However, until now, due to the lack of highly
efficient low-cost electrode catalysts for the oxygen reduction
cathode, metaleair batteries have been only used in small-
scale special applications, such as pagers and hearing aids,
indicating that the development of amore effective,metaleair
battery catalyst could have much wider application.
Oxygen reduction cathodes for the metaleair battery are
usually gas diffusion electrodes, and the choice of catalyst for
. Qu).
ished by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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the gas diffusion electrode is largely responsible for the bat-
tery performance. At present, the catalysts for the gas diffu-
sion electrode mainly include: (1) noble metals, such as Pt [1],
Ag [2], PteAu [3], Pd49Pt47Co4 [4], PteCo [5], and PteRueCo [6];
(2) metal oxides, such as Co3O4 [7], MnOOH [8], and MnO2 [9];
(3) mixedmetal oxides, such as NixCo3�xO4 [10], La0.6Ca0.4CoO3[11], La0.1Ca0.9MnO3 [11], LaNiO3 [11], LaNi0.8Co0.2O3 [12], and
MnxCo3�xO4 [13]; (4) macrocyclic compounds, such as cobalttetramethoxy phenylporphyrin (CoTMPP) [14], cobalt phtha-
locyanine (CoPc) [15], and iron phthalocyanine (FePc) [16].
Among these catalysts, platinum is the most suitable elec-
trocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) due to its
high electrocatalytic activity and chemical stability. However,
there are several obstacles to utilizing Pt catalysts in most
practical applications, including high cost and easily suscep-
tible to poisoning by carbon monoxide [17]. Improving the
properties of oxygen reduction cathode materials and seeking
inexpensive and efficient catalysts has become a major focal
point in the field of metaleair battery research.
Tungsten carbide (WC) is a promising catalytic material for
the gas diffusion electrode, since its catalytic behavior re-
sembles platinum [18], but its stability [19e21], anti-toxic and
oxidation resistance are much higher than those of platinum
[22]. Mustain et al. [23] studying the stability of Pt/WO3 in acid
media found the sequential electrochemical oxidation of WC
to WOx and WO3 at E >0.8 V followed by the formation and
dissolution of HxWO3. The proposed degradation mechanism
for WC and WO3 demonstrated that as long as the support
surface is exposed to the acidic electrolyte, neither represents
a long-term stable support material for Pt electrocatalysts.
The formed nonconductive WO3 could isolate Pt particles by
coating on their surface, leading to electrochemically inac-
cessible Pt particles. But the presence of Pt on WC surface can
stabilize WC and further inhibit WC oxidation, which is
consistent with the results reported in the literature [24,25].
Furthermore, Mark et al. [26] compared the stability of the
most commonly used carbides in electrochemical applica-
tions: tungsten carbides (WC and W2C) and molybdenum
carbide (MO2C) in electrolytic solutions by varying pH values,
whereWC exhibits the largest region of stability at a relatively
lower pH value. It has been reported that tungsten carbide
exhibits high catalytic activity in electro-catalysis [27], and is a
promising material for hydrogen evolution reactions and
hydrogen oxidation reactions in electro-catalysis [28]. Pt
nanoparticles supported by WC substrate show remarkable
catalytic activity for ORR [29], has anti-poisoning properties
for carbon monoxide in methanol electro-oxidation, and ex-
hibits improved methanol oxidation performance [30]. Addi-
tionally, tungsten carbide particles as a counter-electrode for
dye-sensitized solar cells have been shown to improve cata-
lytic activity for iodide reduction [31,32], and when combined
with titania in nanocomposites, has shown synergistic effects
for electrocatalysts [33]. The infiltrated WCeYSZ (yttrium
stabilized zirconia), as a potential anode for direct methane-
fueled solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), performed stably with
no catastrophic degradation at 800e900 �C [34]. However,catalytic activity of WC is lower than Pt.
It was confirmed that the preparation method and pro-
cessing conditions play a critical role in the electrochemical
behavior and chemical stability of tungsten carbide [35,36].
Until now, WC powder has been prepared by many methods,
such as chemical precipitation [37], mechanical alloying
[38,39], sonochemical synthesis [40], microwave synthesis
[41e43], a temperature-programmed method [44,45], and hy-
drothermalmethods [46]. However, some of these preparation
methods have deficiencies. For example, it is easy to introduce
the impurities by chemical precipitation method. Mechanical
alloying requires high temperatures and consumes large
amounts of energy, the distribution of the WC particle size is
not uniform by the method. Due to a consequence of the
temperature dependence of dielectric and heating frequency,
the preparation process of WC is not easy to control by Mi-
crowave heating method. Polymeric carbon will be formed on
the surface of WC in the temperature-programmed method,
which can affect the surface activity. So far, preparation of
tungsten carbide catalyst by the low-temperature combustion
synthesis has not been reported. Low-temperature combus-
tion synthesis (LCS) is based on the exothermic redox reaction
between the oxidizer and the appropriate fuel, which could
induce spontaneous redox reaction at much lower tempera-
tures than the actual phase formation temperature. The
products fabricated by the LCS method could have smaller
grains with homogeneous size, since all reactants are mixed
in solution at the molecular level, leading to a faster reaction
rate. Currently, the LCS method is widely used to synthesize
ultrafine ceramic powders of complex oxide compositions and
luminescent materials [47e49]. Its widespread use in this area
is due to the fairly simple equipment needs, short reaction
times and high energy efficiency. In this study, tungsten car-
bide powder was synthesized by means of the LCS method,
and processing conditions, such as temperature and carbon
source contents, were varied in order to determine the
optimal conditions for synthesizing WC with superior elec-
trocatalytic properties. Finally, the catalytic activity of syn-
thesized WC for the ORR was investigated through the use of
polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spec-
troscopy (EIS).
Experimental details
WC catalyst preparation
Ammonium tungstate ((NH4)10W12O41, analytical grade), urea
(CO(NH2)2, analytical grade), nitric acid (HNO3, 65 wt.%), and
glucose (C6H12O6$H2O, analytical grade) were used as raw
materials in the synthesis. In this system, ammonium tung-
state was used as the tungsten source, nitric acid as an
oxidant, urea as fuel, and glucose as the carbon source. The
low-temperature combustion synthesis process is a redox
reaction, thus combustion products are generally oxides, CO2,
N2, and H2O. The combustion reaction can be described as
follows:
3ðNH4Þ10W12O41 þ 30HNO3 þ 10COðNH2Þ2/36WO3 þ 10CO2ðgÞþ 40N2ðgÞ þ 95H2O
(1)
(NH4)10W12O41, CO(NH2)2, and HNO3 were weighed ac-
cording to the 3:30:10 molar ratio in Eq. (1). The amount of
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Fig. 1 e X-ray diffraction patterns of the precursors
synthesized with different C/W molar ratios: (P1)17/3; (P2)
18/3; (P3)19/3; (P4)20/3; (P5)21/3; (P6)22/3.
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C6H12O6$H2O was added according to the C/W molar ratio. In
the experiments, C6H12O6$H2O was added in the C/W molar
ratios of 17/3(P1), 18/3(P2), 19/3(P3), 20/3(P4), 21/3(P5) and 22/
3(P6). The preparation procedure consisted of dissolving
(NH4)10W12O41, CO(NH2)2 and C6H12O6$H2O in deionized water
under stirring. Then, HNO3 was added to the solution and
concentrated in a beaker. The resulting solution was placed in
a closed electric furnace and evaporated to form a viscous gel.
When the viscous gel swelled, it auto-ignited and initiated a
highly exothermic self-contained combustion process, con-
verting raw materials into a loose black mixture. The com-
bustion products were then used as WC precursors. The
precursors already contained some carbon, and were further
carburized to convert to the desired product. The precursor
was ground into powder in a mortar, and transferred into a
tube furnace, where it was carburized under argon flow at
various temperatures, between 800 �C and 1100 �C for 6 h to
study the development of the crystalline phases.
Sample characterization
X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples were recorded
with a Rigaku (D/MAX-RB) diffractometer using Cu Ka radia-
tion (l ¼ 1.5406 �A) at a scanning rate of 10� min�1. Themorphology of the powder samples was studied using a field-
emission scanning electron microscope (SEM, Zeiss Ultra 55).
Energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS) attached to the SEM and
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, ESCALAB 250 Xi) were
also used to investigate the near surface chemical composi-
tion of the samples.
Preparation of gas diffusion electrodes and electrochemicalmeasurements
Gas diffusion electrodes consisted of three layers: a catalyst
layer, a current collecting layer, and a gas diffusion layer,
prepared based on earlier results from the literature [50e52].
The catalyst layer was made of synthesized tungsten carbide
catalyst, acetylene black and polytetrafluoroethylene. At first,
The WC catalyst, PTFE (60 wt.% suspension) and acetylene
black (WC:PTFE:acetylene black ¼ 3:2:5 in weight ratio) weremixed in deionized water, then added appropriate anhydrous
ethanol under stirring for 5 min. The mixture was placed in a
thermostatic water bath at 80 �C and continually stirred untilthe mixed materials became a ropy and tough paste. At last,
the pastewas pressed into an approximately 0.3mm thick and
1.5 cm diameter disc by using a pellet press. The gas diffusion
layer was prepared as the preparation of the mentioned
catalyst layer. Here in, the nominal molar ratios of acetylene
black: anhydrous sodium sulfate: PTFE were to 1:1:1 (weight
ratio), and then these materials were mixed in absolute ethyl
alcohol by stirring at room temperature for 20 min, and then
themixturewas stirred in the thermostaticwater bath at 80 �Cuntil completelymixed. Themoisture barrierwasmade by the
rolling method. Nickel foam was selected as a current collec-
tor. The catalyst layer and gas diffusion layer were pressed
together with a nickel foam current collector in-between,
under 16 MPa pressure for 1 min. Then, the gas diffusion
electrodes were finished by sintering at 200 �C in N2 flow for30 min.
Electrochemical measurements were performed using a
Parstat 2273 electrochemical workstation at 30 �C. The three-electrode system was utilized for electrochemical analysis
with the nickel foil as the counter-electrode. Hg/HgOwas used
as the reference electrode, which was a 6 M KOH solution
under alkaline conditions. A saturated calomel electrode (SCE)
was used as the reference electrode, which was a 1 M NaCl
solution under neutral pH conditions. The gas diffusion elec-
trode (catalyst layer in contact with electrolyte and its back
exposed to air) was used as aworking electrodewith 0.785 cm2
geometrical exposed area. The steady state polarization curve
measurements were performedwith a scan rate of 0.5 mV s�1.
The electrochemical impedance spectra were recorded in the
10 kHz to 0.01 Hz range. An ac signal amplitude of 5 mV was
used, and Nyquist plots were used to interpret the electro-
chemical performance of the gas diffusion electrode.
Results and discussion
Influence of the C/W molar ratio on the formation of WCcatalyst
The molar ratio of C/W has an obvious effect on the crystal-
linity of the precursors as seen in Fig. 1, showing XRD patterns
of the as-prepared precursors with different C/Wmolar ratios.
The XRD trace shows the presence of crystalline phases for
the tungsten trioxide and a residue of amorphous elemental
carbon, namely carbon black. With an increase of the C/W
molar ratio, the intensity of diffraction peak for the tungsten
trioxide phase decreases, suggesting reduced crystallization.
The morphology and microstructure of the precursors were
investigated in the field-emission scanning electron micro-
scope (SEM), and the results are shown in Fig. 2, revealing
highly porous agglomerates with many faceted grains. The
specimen exhibits a small amount of porosity, which results
from gases being released during the combustion process [53].
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Fig. 2 e SEM micrographs of: (a) precursor P2; (b) precursor P3; (c) precursor P4; (d) precursor P5.
Fig. 3 e SEM micrographs and EDS spectra of the precursor
P3. Elemental spectra corresponds to the Spectrum 1 point
on the SEM micrograph.
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The particles size and shape do not differ significantly from
one sample to another.
Fig. 3 presents the EDS spectrum of the P3 precursor. The
elemental spectrum in Fig. 3 shows that the chemical com-
ponents of the sample are carbon, oxygen and tungsten,
which is consistent with the XRD results [54]. The proportion
of various elements has been obtained by the EDS spectrum,
as shown in Table 1. This shows that precursors prepared by
the LCS method mainly consist of tungsten trioxide and car-
bon, while the tungsten trioxide is dispersed in carbon. The
carbon content of the P3 precursor with a 19/3 C/Wmolar ratio
is 14.6 wt.%, as shown in Table 2. Meanwhile, in order to
further prove the composition of P3 precursor analyzed from
the EDS results, Fig. 4 shows the XPS spectrum for the surface
Table 1e The element content of the P3 precursor via EDSanalysis.
Element Weight% Atomic%
C 28.16 53.54
O 28.81 41.12
W 43.02 5.34
Total 100.00 100.00
Table 2 e Phases and C wt% of carburized product withdifferent C/W ratio in raw materials.
C/W ratio inraw materials
C wt% inthe precursor
Phases of thefinal product
C wt%in the finalproduct
18/3 12.9 W, W2C, WC 5.9
19/3 14.6 WC 7.1
20/3 15.6 WC 7.8
21/3 17.6 W2C, WC 8.6
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Fig. 4 e XPS spectra of the precursor P3: (a) W 4f peak; (b) O
1s peak; (c) C 1s peak.
Fig. 5 e XRD patterns of different powders prepared from
the precursors (a) P1; (b) P2; (c) P3; (d) P4; (e) P5; (f) P6.
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composition of the P3 precursor. Fig. 4a shows the photo-
emission spectrum ofW 4f at 35.7 eV, 37.9 eV, and 41.7 eV, and
Fig. 4b shows the photoemission spectrum of O1s at 530.6 eV,
which both indicate the tested composition corresponds to
WO3. The C 1s peak is dominated by that of carbon at 284.8 eV,
as shown in Fig. 4c. The XPS results are consistent with the
EDSmeasurement, indicating that the P3 precursor consists of
WO3 and carbon.
To convert WO3 to WC, precursors synthesized by the LCS
method with various C/W molar ratios are reduced and
carburized in argon for 6 h at 1100 �C. The X-ray diffractionpatterns for these carburized powders are shown in Fig. 5.
There are relatively stronger W peaks and weaker W2C peaks
in Fig. 5a, suggesting that the carbonization reaction had
occurred. Only the WC peaks can be observed when C/W
molar ratios are 19/3 and 20/3, which suggest that the WO3 of
the precursors completely transformed into tungsten carbide
during the carbonization process. This can be observed in
Fig. 5c and d. The desiredWC emerges as themajor phasewith
further increase of the C/W molar ratio, while the secondary
W2C phase also appears in Fig. 5e and f. Thus, both excessive
and insufficient molar ratios of C/W in the raw materials
affect the final WC phase generation. For pure WC, the
appropriate C/W molar ratio is determined to be 19/3.
The carbon content of tungsten carbide improves with an
increase of the C/W molar ratio, as shown in Table 2. When
the C/W molar ratio is 18/3, the precursor after carbonization
consists of W, W2C, and WC phases. The theoretical carbon
content value is C/WC ¼ 6.1 wt.%, while for the 18/3 sample itis 5.9 wt.%, lower than the theoretical value. Complete
carbonization may only occur with carbon content higher
than 6.1 wt.%, so that a singleWC phase is obtained. However,
when the carbon content is higher, i.e. the C/W molar ratio is
21/3, the W2C phase will be generated when the carbon con-
tent is 8.6 wt.%.
Fig. 6 displays SEMmicrographs of reduced and carburized
powders prepared from different C/W molar ratio precursors.
The powders consist of homogeneous nano-sized particles
with 200 nm average particle size. In Fig. 6d, one can clearly
see residual carbon in the powders, due to the high C/Wmolar
ratio in the P5 precursor.
Carbon content effect on the complete carbonizationtemperature
In order to study the effect of carbon content on the complete
carbonization temperature, the P3 precursorwith the 19/3C/W
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Fig. 7 e XRD patterns of the products of the precursor (a) P3
and (b) P4 carburized at 800 �C; 900 �C; 1000 �C; 1100 �C for6 h.
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molar ratio and the P4 precursor with the 20/3 C/Wmolar ratio
are reduced and carburized at various temperatures for 6 h in
argon. X-ray diffraction patterns from the 19/3 molar ratio
carburized powders are shown in Fig. 7a. The precursor pre-
pared by low-temperature combustion synthesis contains the
W2C phase at 800 �C, which may be due to the low carbon-ization temperature and incomplete carbonization. When the
temperature is higher than 900 �C, the product after the car-bon reduction reaction is based on the single-phase tungsten
carbide particles. Analyzing the XRD spectrum of the 20/3 C/W
molar ratio carbon tungsten powder, there are relatively
strong W peaks at 800 �C, suggesting that WO2 has beenreduced to elementalW at the beginning of carbonization. It is
clear that the intensity of the WC reflections begins to in-
crease at 900 �C, as shown in Fig. 7b. The W2C phase isobserved below 1000 �C, and pure WC powder is obtainedwhen the carbonization temperature reaches 1100 �C. Thus,the optimal carbonization temperature is 1100 �C.
The SEM micrographs of powders carburized at 800 �C and900 �Care shown in Fig. 8. As to the carbide powderwith the 19/3 C/Wmolar ratio at 800 �C, it appears that part of the particlesare coated with free carbon [55,56], based on the SEM micro-
graphs. This suggests that some portion of the carbon is not
combined with tungsten. When the temperature increases to
900 �C, the phase after carbonization appears to be a singleWCphase. Comparing resulting morphology from the SEM mi-
crographs of the 20/3 C/W molar ratio powder after carbon-
ization, carbonization reaction at 1100 �C proceeds morecompletely than at 800 �C, indicating that a higher carboniza-tion temperature promotes precursor carbonization.
The carbon content has a major influence on the purity of
tungsten carbide after carbonization. Since the reaction tem-
perature of pure tungsten carbide with the 20/3 C/W molar
ratio after carbonization is 1100 �C,which is higher than 900 �Cfor the 19/3 C/W molar ratio, it can be concluded that the re-
action temperature of pure tungsten carbide increases with
Fig. 6 e SEM micrographs of powders prepared from the precursors (a) P2; (b) P3; (c) P4; (d) P5.
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Fig. 8 e SEMmicrographs of the products of the precursor P3 carburized at (a) 800 �C; (b) 900 �C and P4 carburized at (c) 800 �C;(d) 1100 �C for 6 h.
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the carbon content. The above studies have shown that car-
bon content has a functional effect on the complete carbon-
ization temperature. With increased carbon content in the
precursor, the complete carbonization temperature rises
significantly. Therefore, when the carbide products of the 21/3
C/W molar ratio are sintered at 1100 �C, the W2C phase ap-pears, since the sintering temperature is too low.
Electrocatalytic activity of WC
In order to investigate the electrocatalytic activity of the syn-
thesized tungsten carbide samples, the 20/3-WC and 19/3-WC
samples are used as catalysts to prepare gas diffusion elec-
trodes (S1 and S2) and the samples are characterized using
polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectros-
copy. Low-cost activated carbon is commonly used as the
cathode material for small load metaleair batteries. Thus, an
activated carbon gas diffusion electrode (C) is also character-
ized to compare its electrocatalytic activity with the synthe-
sized tungsten carbide. Fig. 9 shows the steady-state linear
polarization curvesofdifferentgasdiffusionelectrodesat 30 �Cwith a scan rate of 0.5 mV s�1. Based on Fig. 9a, the low po-tential area of each electrode polarization curve is almost the
same (1 M NaCl solution). In the high potential area, the elec-
trode polarization current density with tungsten carbide
catalyst is higher than activated carbon gas diffusion electrode
(C). When the electrode potential is high than 0.35 V, the po-
larization current densities achieved by the S2 gas diffusion
electrode is higher than those of the S1 gas diffusion electrode
in high over potential region. It could also be due to different
porosity, gas diffusivity, mass transport limitations, residual
carbon.
As seen in Fig. 9b, all gas diffusion electrodes exhibit no
difference in polarization between �0.2 V and 0 V (vs. Hg/
HgO). However, electrodes containing the WC catalyst exhibit
smaller polarization than those without the WC catalyst
below �0.2 V, with the S2 gas diffusion electrode polarizationhaving the lowest value. The current density of the S2 gas
diffusion electrode at �0.4 V is approximately 350 mA cm�2.Comparing this value with the literature result for the Pt
catalyst [57]: at �0.4 V (vs. Hg/HgO), the measured currentdensity of the gas diffusion electrode for the Pt catalyst,
loaded by the method of evaporation to dryness and adsorp-
tion, is similar to the literature value of about 400 mA cm�2.These results imply that the 19/3-WC catalyst is an active
component of the ORR in alkaline solutions and is a viable
alternative to expensive Pt for the electrocatalytic cathode in
metaleair batteries.
In order to gain additional information on ORR, the EIS
characteristics of the S1 and S2 electrodes, where the catalysts
are 20/3-WC and 19/3-WC, respectively, are investigated.
Again, an activated carbon gas diffusion electrode (C) is also
characterized to compare its electrocatalytic activity with the
synthesized tungsten carbide. Fig. 10 exhibits the corre-
sponding Nyquist plots at 0.05 V (vs. SCE) with the test fre-
quency between 10 kHz and 0.01 Hz. As shown in Fig. 10, both
impedances comprise a semicircle in the frequency range,
which represent the ORR charge transfer resistance (Rct) cor-
responding to electron and ion transfer processes occurring at
interfaces [58]. Thus, the charge transfer step is the ORR rate-
determining step. Considering that the semicircle in EIS
curves represents the ORR charge transfer resistance (Rct), the
corresponding Rct in the case of S2 electrode is the smallest
among the three electrodes at the tested potential. Therefore,
it is reasonable to believe that the ORR on S2 electrode is more
favorable compared with that on the other two electrodes and
the 19/3-WC catalyst shows better catalytic properties
resulting from the enhanced reaction kinetics.
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Fig. 9 e Linear polarization curves of gas diffusion
electrodes with different catalysts (C) activated carbon; (S1)
20/3-WC; (S2)19/3-WC; (a) neutral solution; (b) alkaline
solution.
Fig. 10 e Impedance spectra of gas diffusion electrodes
with different catalysts (C) activated carbon; (S1) 20/3-WC;
(S2) 19/3-WC; (a) neutral solution; (b) alkaline solution.
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Summary
Tungsten carbide catalysts for gas diffusion electrodes have
been successfully synthesized by the low-temperature com-
bustion synthesis for the first time. In this work ammonium
tungstate is used as a tungsten source, and glucose as a carbon
source. The combustion products are in the form of loose
agglomerates, which are easily ground to fine powders, and
mainly consist of tungsten trioxide and carbon. Concentra-
tions both above and below the C/W molar ratios needed for
stoichiometry of the raw materials are tested, and affect the
finalWC phases’ generation. Carbon content has a clear effect
on the complete carbonization temperature. When the C/W
molar ratio is equal to 19/3, efficientWC catalyst is obtained by
carburizing at 1100 �C for 6 h. The particle size of the finalsynthesized tungsten carbide is about 200 nm. The synthe-
sized 19/3-WC catalyst exhibits small polarization values, and
the charge transfer is the ORR rate-determining step. The 19/
3-WC catalyst exhibits sufficient electrochemical values,
making it a realistic alternative to the more expensive Pt as
the cathode catalyst in metaleair batteries.
Acknowledgments
Ping Li and Fuqiang Zhai thanks China Scholarship Council for
providing the scholarship.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.04.173http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.04.173
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i n t e rn a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n en e r g y 3 9 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 0 9 1 1e1 0 9 2 010920
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Tungsten carbide synthesized by low-temperature combustion as gas diffusion electrode catalystIntroductionExperimental detailsWC catalyst preparationSample characterizationPreparation of gas diffusion electrodes and electrochemical measurements
Results and discussionInfluence of the C/W molar ratio on the formation of WC catalystCarbon content effect on the complete carbonization temperatureElectrocatalytic activity of WC
SummaryAcknowledgmentsReferences