(334b) Metal-Modified Transition Metal Nitride Electrocatalysts for Oer, HER, and Other Reactions

Transition metal nitrides are attractive electrocatalytic support materials for similar reasons as their extensively studied carbide counterparts – they are particularly useful for reducing precious metal loading, compared to a carbon support. Nitrides, however, have the distinct advantage of avoiding the carbonaceous overlayer resulting from typical carbide synthesis techniques. The bare nitride surface allows ad-metals to directly contact nitrides, which can improve performance and strengthen correlations with density functional theory calculations on model surfaces. This work utilizes these advantages to develop low-cost and effective electrocatalysts for various fuel cell and electrolysis reactions. Specifically, (1) iridium-metal nitride core-shell particles are used to reduce Ir loading for acidic OER by 50 percent, (2) monolayer platinum on niobium nitride and tungsten nitride thin films are demonstrated as effective HER catalysts in alkaline and acidic electrolytes, and (3) systematic stability studies are conducted on nitride thin films to evaluate their utility for various reactions across wide potential-pH regimes.