Facile Synthesis of N‐Doped Hollow Carbon Spheres @MoS₂ via Polymer Microspheres Template Method and One‐Step Calcination for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

MoS2, as a catalyst, has attracted broad attention in recent years due to its high catalytic activity and low cost. However, MoS2 stacks readily, especially the one synthesized by calcination which is close to bulk, so it limits the number of exposed active site. Carbon materials possess excellent electrical conductivity and large surface area. In this paper, N‐doped hollow carbon sphere coated MoS2 (NHCS@MoS2) nanocomposites are synthesized via one‐step calcination treatment of the polypyrrole@(NH4)2MoS4 core shell structure directly. Compared with bare MoS2, the NHCS@MoS2 shows remarkably high electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution with the overpotential of 190 mV to reach the current density of 10 mA cm−2. Both small tafel slope and Rct suggest that NHCS@MoS2 has a high hydrogen dissociation rate. Furthermore, it also exhibits excellent stability.

In situ establishment of Co/MoS2 heterostructures onto inverse opal‐structured N,S‐doped carbon hollow nanospheres: Interfacial and architectural dual engineering for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

“…Apparently, such intriguing architecture could drastically enlarge the surface area, facilitate the electrolyte permeation, and accelerate the gas release during the electrolytic HER process. 46 The magnified SEM image (Figure 2C) discloses that the average diameter of the hollow carbon into the carbon lattice. 2 The abundant defects are believed to play a positive role in electrocatalysis.…”

Competition among Refined Hollow Structures in Schiff Base Polymer Derived Carbon Microspheres

“…Hollow carbon colloidal nano/microspheres featuring a controllable particle size distribution, low density, large inner space, and reduced length for both mass and charge transport are attractive for photothermal conversion, energy storage, biomedicine, and catalysis applications. − Over the past decades, diverse precursors containing biomass, synthetic polymer, and other carbon-rich industrial raw materials have been used as precursors to obtain hollow carbon spheres. − Among the existing hollow carbon spheres, synthetic polymer-derived ones occupy a pivotal role, because well-defined synthetic polymers provide a way to control structures and contents in hollow carbon spheres. − For example, phenolic resin as the classic synthetic polymer precursor has greatly promoted the development of carbon spheres, leading to the advent of carbon spheres with controllable sizes from the nanoscale to micron-scale, solid or hollow structures, micropores, and mesopores even macropores. ,− These porous carbon spheres derived from phenolic resins are useful in energy storage, gas adsorption, and catalysis, but their homogeneous nonpolar surfaces limit their performance improvement. , Heteroatom-doped polymer nanospheres such as polydopamine, − polypyrrole, − polyaniline, , polydiaminopyridine, , and melamine resin nanospheres, , stand out as emerging precursors for heteroatom-doped carbon spheres, because heteroatoms in carbon frameworks can modulate the electron density distribution to achieve enhanced performance. ,− Up to now, the construction of hollow structures in carbon spheres still relies on the modification and carbonization of polymer precursors mentioned above, such as phenolic resin, polydopamine, and polypyrrole. , The exploration of new polymer-derived carbon spheres not only boosts the development of carbon spheres by the directly molecular-based design of heteroatom-doped polymer/carbon spheres but also enriches synthetic methodology . Moreover, beyond the conventional hollow structure with a single chamber, the introduction of refined architectures such as multichamber structure and hierarchical hollow structure in carbon spheres has shown the hot issues targeting performance improvement and application expansion. ,−…”

MoS2–2xSe2x Nanosheets Grown on Hollow Carbon Spheres for Enhanced Electrochemical Activity

“…This strategy resulted in MoS 2 with excellent HER activity in an alkaline solution. The third approach is the combination of MoS 2 with carbonaceous materials or metal materials with good conductivity. − For example, Wang et al synthesized a Cu 2 S/MoS 2 heterojunction nanoarray supported on foam nickel to prove that the heterojunction structure has abundant defects and outward active sites to obtain high-quality and efficient catalysts. Namely, the preparation of photocatalysts for hydrogen generation is also a popular and important method. − …”