A Facile Synthesis of Tungsten Carbide/Carbon Nanocomposite as a Non-Platinum Electrocatalyst for Methanol Oxidation

Tungsten carbide/carbon nanocomposite has been successfully synthesized by ion-exchange method and carbothernal reaction. A strongly basic ion exchange resin was chosen to act as both carbon framework and carbon source. The location of tungsten ions into pores of the resin was conducted by ion-exchanging with counter ion (Cl−) in resin. Due to the strong electrostatic attraction between tungsten ions and amine groups from resin, the guest ions can be uniformly distributed and strongly embedded in the framework. Thermal gravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy results have demonstrated that a homogenous distribution throughout the surface of carbon after carbothermal reaction and a particle size of about 30 nm of Tungsten carbide. The oxidation of methanol experiment shows that the nanocomposite shows comparable electrocatalytic performance to pure platinum based electrode as well as an improved CO tolerance, which gives the potential capability route for non-platinum electrode for methanol electrooxidation.