Preparation of tungsten carbide nanoparticles by ion implantation and electrochemical etching

Glassy carbon (GC) substrates were implanted with 100 keV tungsten ions at retained fluences of 4 × 1016 and 6 × 1016 ions/cm2 and surface-etched electrochemically in order to prepare tungsten-carbide (WC) nanoparticles on their topmost layers. The calculated current efficiency for the electrochemical etching was nearly the same for the two samples implanted at different fluences, suggesting the controllability of the etched depth using the consumed electric charge. The etching front reached the buried tungsten-implanted layer and increased the tungsten concentration at the surface. No oxidation of WC was observed, even under anodic potential application during electrochemical etching. The voltammogram response of the topmost nanoparticle layer was too small to be observed, probably due to the limited activity of the WC itself and the remaining low concentration. It was demonstrated that this technique could, in principle, be applied to various types of nanoparticle catalysts implanted in GC substrates.