Hydrogen has garnered considerable attention as a promising energy source for addressing contemporary environmental degradation and energy scarcity challenges. Electrocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production has emerged as an environmentally friendly and versatile method, offering high purity. However, the development of cost-effective electrocatalytic catalysts using abundant and inexpensive materials is crucial. In this study, we successfully synthesized nitrogen-doped Co₆Mo₆C supported on nitrogen-doped graphene (N-Co₆Mo₆C/NC). The catalyst exhibited high performance and durability in alkaline electrolytes (1.0 M KOH) for hydrogen evolution, showcasing an overpotential of 185 mV at a current density of 100 mA cm⁻² and a Tafel slope of 80 mV dec⁻¹. These findings present a novel avenue for the fabrication of efficient bimetallic carbide catalysts.

Efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts play a crucial role in hydrogen production through the electrolysis of water. Molybdenum (Mo) carbide with a similar electronic structure to Pt was selected, and both α-MoC_1−x and α-MoC_1−x/β-Mo₂C electrocatalysts were successfully fabricated for electrochemical hydrogen evolution. A continuous optimization of the hydrothermal and carbonization conditions was carried out for the preparation of α-MoC_1−x. The biphasic molybdenum carbide catalysts were further achieved via vanadium doping with a phase transition of molybdenum carbide from α to β, which increased the specific surface area of the electrocatalyst. It was found that the V-Mo_xC catalyst obtained at a Mo/V molar addition ratio of 100:5 exhibited the best hydrogen production performance, with a β to α phase ratio of 0.827. The overpotential of V-Mo_xC at η₁₀ decreased to 99 mV, and the Tafel slope reached 65.1 mV dec⁻¹, indicating a significant improvement in performance compared to the undoped samples. Excellent stability was obtained for the as-prepared electrocatalyst for water splitting over 100 h at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻².

Epoxy coatings are popular due to their strong adhesion, low cost, and superior thermal and electrical insulation. Unfortunately, surface defects in epoxy resin lead to surface cracks, limiting the long-term use of epoxy resin coatings in humid marine environments. In this study, modified kaolin (Kaolin) was added to an epoxy resin (EP) to enhance its corrosion resistance, and a silane coupling agent 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ) were chosen as modifiers. This resulted in the composite 8-hydroxyquinoline/silica/amino kaolin (8-HQ@SiO2@AK), and the structural makeup, loading, hydrophobic characteristics, surface roughness, and corrosion resistance of 8-HQ@SiO2@AK and 8-hydroxyquinoline/silica/amino kaolin/epoxy resin composite coating (8-HQ@SiO2@AK/EP) was investigated. Based on these findings, the maximum contact angle of the hydrophobic composite coating was 88°, its roughness Ra was 3.09 nm, and the hardness and adhesion were unaltered compared to silica-modified kaolin/epoxy composite coatings (SiO2@AK/EP). The impedance modulus |Z|0.01 Hz of the composite was 3.662×109 Ω • cm2 after 30 days of immersion, which indicated significantly enhanced corrosion resistance.