Early transition metal carbides (TMCs) are earth-abundant materials with established commercial use in a variety of applications due to their favorable optical, electronic, mechanical, and chemical properties. Tungsten carbide (WC) has garnered much attention for its catalytic similarities to the platinum group metals (PGMs) in several thermo- and electro-catalytic reactions, such as hydrocarbon processing, biomass conversion, water splitting, and alcohol electrooxidation.  The reactivity of WC has been partially attributed to the intercalation of C to the W lattice, which gives rise to a �Pt-like� d-band electronic density states (DOS). Despite its promising catalytic properties, the lack of synthesis methods to produce metal-terminated WC nanoparticles (NPs) of controlled sizes has been the main obstacle preventing the wide-spread use of WC and other TMCs as earth-abundant catalysts. Current methods either partially mitigate sintering while generating thick surface oxide layers with excess surface carbon or fully mitigate sintering by embedding carbides within high excesses of carbon.  Consequently, catalytic studies with WC are often restricted to model materials (e.g., thin films or bulk particles) where metal-terminated active sites are synthetically achievable.  In this work, we present a method to produce mono- and multi-metallic TMC NPs with tunable size, composition, and crystal-phase. This synthesis method is versatile and scalable, allowing for the deposition of well-dispersed, metal-terminated TMC NPs in the range of 1�4 nm on any support with loadings exceeding 40 wt%.  The synthesis method and catalytic performance in thermo- and electro-chemical reactions will be discussed.

Engineering non-sintered, metal-terminated tungsten carbide nanoparticles: Synthesis and catalytic applications

247th National Meeting (2014)

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