Nonclassical crystal growth of transition metal phosphide

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K04885
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Nanomaterials chemistry
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: Saito Kenji 新潟大学, 自然科学系, 准教授 (60397669)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: MoP / Oriented Aggregation / 水素生成用電極触媒

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Objective of this research project was to develop a liquid-phase synthesis method of molybdenum phosphide (MoP) that is known to show excellent catalytic performance of electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction (E-HER), through non-classical crystal growth mechanism (oriented aggregation) in which small crystals are combined together to grow larger crystals. By screening the reactants and the synthetic precursors, MoP was obtained by a liquid-phase method eventually. The particle size of the MoP was ca. 200 nm, which is much smaller than that prepared from solid state reaction (ca. 10 μm). The MoP obtained shows smaller overpotential for E-HER than the bulky counterpart.

Free Research Field

無機化学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

非古典的結晶化機構の理解および意図的に引き起こすための技術開発は、大変注目されている課題である(Raju, M. et al., Nano Lett. 2014, 14, 1836-1842.)。先行研究結果を基に、本機構の鍵とされる「仮説を実証」するため、非古典的結晶化による合成の前例がない金属リン化物、特にMoP合成に取り組む試みであり、科学技術のさらなる発展に必要な研究であると考えられる。