Molybdenum carbide-nitrogen doped carbon composites as effective non-precious electrocatalyst for direct hydrazine fuel cell

Abstract Highly efficient, abundant and stable, non-noble metal electrocatalysts are of critical importance to the development of direct hydrazine fuel cells technology. Herein, molybdenum carbide composite with nitrogen doped carbon (MoCx-NC) is prepared by fast pyrolysis. Among as-prepared electrocatalysts, the optimal MoCx-NC electrocatalyst (900°C, 5 %) presents higher electrocatalytic performance (3.56 mA cm−2) and better cycling stability (86.13 %) for anode hydrazine oxidation reaction. Importantly, the optimal electrocatalyst-driven direct hydrazine fuel cell demonstrates an open circuit voltage of 0.96 V (80°C) with a maximum power density of 158.26 mW cm−2, which also possesses a good long-term operating stability for 12 h. Furthermore, a series of physical characterizations of transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman is also performed on the optimal MoCx-NC, which proving that the MoCx-NC is a composite of molybdenum carbide and nitrogen doped carbon. This target catalyst is an effective and ideal noble-metal-free anode electrocatalyst, would have a great potential to be applied in direct hydrazine fuel cells in the future.