Petal-shaped Tungsten Sulfide Nanosphere

At present, energy consumption and environmental problems have become the focus of attention all over the world. As the highest energy density, clean and efficient renewable energy, hydrogen is the most potential new energy in the 21st century. It is expected to replace fossil energy in people's production and life in the near future.

petal-shaped tungsten sulfide nanosphere image

In recent decades, technologies such as hydrogen storage and hydrogen production have developed rapidly. The technology of obtaining hydrogen by means of water cracking has attracted many scholars. The most important key point of this technology is the catalyst. Platinum is a known effect. The best catalyst, but noble metal materials such as platinum-based as a highly efficient hydrogen evolution catalyst, limits the conditions for large-scale applications due to its scarcity. Therefore, it is extremely urgent to develop a cheap and efficient catalyst.

With the development of nanotechnology, it has been found that tungsten carbide has the catalytic properties of platinum-like metals, and it is hopeful to become a substitute catalyst material for platinum. In addition, some scientists believe that not only nano-tungsten carbide, but also transition metal sulfides have excellent hydrogen evolution ability, such as tungsten sulfide, which can also be used as hydrogen evolution catalyst. For example, a petal-like tungsten sulfide nanosphere has been synthesized by hydrothermal method.

(a)Sodium tungstate 4.2g and thiourea 1.3g were added into 50 ml deionized water, and mixed solution was formed by ultrasonic stirring for 30 minutes.

(b)Transfer the mixed solution to the autoclave, heat to 220 °C for 24 h; then naturally cool to room temperature, pour the upper transparent liquid into the waste tank, remove the black precipitate; add alcohol, centrifuge to clean 3 times, then adding deionized water, washing 3 times by centrifugation; the product obtained after centrifugation can be freeze-dried to freeze-dry the obtained tungsten sulfide nanospheres.

Compared with nano-tungsten carbide, petal-like tungsten sulfide nanospheres have simpler preparation process, conventional equipment and better electrocatalytic stability. After 40,000 seconds of recycling, the petal-like tungsten sulfide nanospheres still maintain stable electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity. Compared with platinum, tungsten sulfide is rich in raw materials and cheap, which realizes low cost and high efficiency hydrogen evolution operation.

 

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