Mesoporous tungsten carbide nanoslices with pure phase and superior electrocatalysis

Tungsten carbide nanoslices with mesoporosity have been prepared by an easy two-step strategy, i.e., a hydrothermal pretreatment followed by a carburization reduction process. The greatest advantage of this strategy is that by changing carburization reduction temperature, the morphology and crystal phase of final products could be effectively adjusted. Structure characterizations of the as prepared monotungsten carbide products showed that they were constructed from irregular nanoslices with rough surfaces containing nanoparticles and mesopores. Methanol oxidation experiments using the monotungsten carbide nanoslice material as electrocatalyst found that, though it was consisted of pure WC, of which the electrocatalytic activity towards methanol oxidation is normally thought to be very low, it showed even higher catalytic activity than that of commercial Pt/C (E-TEK), offering a great possibility to develop totally noble-metal-free electrocatalysts for direct methanol fuel cell in the future.