Synthesis of Nanocrystalline α-Mo_2C from Peroxomolybdenum Compounds

1 Introduction Considerable attentions have been focused on transition metal carbide because of their numerous valuable properties, particularly of excellent catalysis similar to noble metal1]. There are many routes2]to synthesize molybdenum carbide. Among them, the temperature programmed reduction of MoO3 using the mixture of hydrocarbon and hydrogen is the most promising procedure to prepare carbide catalyst. Traditionally, CH4/H2 and C2H6/H2 are the most widely used to be the carburizing resource. Herein, this work reported a facile chemical route to the synthesis of α-Mo2C at 1053 K by reacting peroxopolymolybdic acid as precursor with the surfactants (PVP, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, K30; DDAC, dimethyldioctadecylammonium chloride) as the carburizing resources by flowing in a current of hydrogen.