A facile preparation of nanocrystalline Mo2C from graphite or carbon nanotubes

Nanocrystalline Mo2C powders were successfully synthesized at 500 °C by reacting molybdenum chloride (MoCl5) with C (graphite or carbon nanotube) in metallic sodium medium. X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS) and surface area analyzer (BET method) were used to characterize the samples. Experiments reveal that the carbon source used for the carbide synthesis has a great effect on the particle size and the surface area of the samples. When micro-sized graphite was used as C source the obtained nanocrystalline Mo2C powder consists of particles of 30∼100 nm, with a surface area of 2.311 m2/g. When carbon nanotubes were used as C source, the as-synthesized Mo2C sample is composed of particles of 20∼50 nm, with a surface area of 23.458 m2/g, which is an order of magnitude larger than that of the carbide prepared from the graphite.