SummaryThe large-scale application of economically efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is limited in view of the high cost of polymer binders (Nafion) for immobilizing of powder catalysts. In this work, nitrogen-doped molybdenum carbide nanobelts (N-Mo2C NBs) with porous structure are synthesized through a direct pyrolysis process using the pre-prepared molybdenum oxide nanobelts (MoO3 NBs). Nanocellulose instead of Nafion-bonded N-Mo2C NBs (N-Mo2C@NCs) exhibits superior performance toward HER, because of excellent dispersibility and multiple exposed catalytically active sites. Furthermore, the conductive film composed of N-Mo2C NBs, graphene nanosheets, and nanocellulose (N-Mo2C/G@NCs) is fabricated by simple vacuum filtration, as flexible and editable electrode, which possesses excellent performance for scale HER applications. This work not only proposes the potential of nanocellulose to replace Nafion for binding powder catalysts, but also offers a facile strategy to prepare flexible and conductive films for a wide variety of nanomaterials.
In order to prepare flexible electrode with excellent performance, cotton fabric was used as the substrate in this study. The surface of cotton fabric was modified by polydopamine(PDA). The cotton fabric was then carbonized. Finally, a three-dimensional porous flexible electrode for carbonized cotton fabric was prepared. The maximum stress of the flexible electrode is 0.5 MPa. With the increase of carbonization temperature, the specific capacity of flexible electrode increases gradually. The specific capacity of flexible electrode reaches 282 mAh.g−1 at 0.1c charge/discharge rate. The specific capacity of flexible electrode reaches 200 mAh.g−1 at 5C charge/discharge rate. The specific capacity retention rate of the flexible electrode is above 95% when the cycle is 100 weeks at 0.1 c and 600 weeks at 5C. CV test results show that with the decrease of scanning rate, the more stable the cyclic performance of flexible electrode is, the better the reversibility of Li+ stripping/embedding is. The conductivity of the flexible electrode increases with the increase of carbonization temperature. The surface resistance and AC impedance of the flexible electrode are reduced. When the carbonization temperature is 1000°C, the surface resistance of the flexible electrode is 2 Ω.−1, and the AC impedance is 5 Ω.
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