Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon Nanosheets Strongly Coupled with Mo2C Nanoparticles for Efficient Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Exploring earth-abundant and noble metal-free catalysts for water electrolysis is pivotal in renewable hydrogen production. Herein, a highly active electrocatalyst of nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanosheets coupled with Mo2C nanoparticles (Mo2C/NPC) was synthesized by a novel method with high BET surface area of 1380 m2 g−1 using KOH to activate carbon composite materials. The KOH plays a key role in etching out MoS2 to produce Mo precursor; simultaneously, it corrodes carbon to form porous structure and produce reducing gas such as H2 and CO. The resulting Mo2C/NPC hybrid demonstrated superior HER activity in acid solution, with the overpotential of 166 mV at current density of 10 mA cm−2, onset overpotential of 93 mV, Tafel slope of 68 mV dec−1, and remarkable long-term cycling stability. The present strategy may provide a promising strategy to fabricate other metal carbide/carbon hybrids for energy conversion and storage.Supplementary materialSupplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s11671-019-3147-z.

A Laser‐Induced Mo2CTx MXene Hybrid Anode for High‐Performance Li‐Ion Batteries

“…The shift in the (002) peak of the Mo 2 CT x anode is attributed to the partial removal of the water molecules intercalated between the MXene nanosheets during fabrication (Experimental Section). After laser-scribing, the presence of Mo 2 C is indicated by the diffraction peaks at 34.4°, 36.5°, 37.7°, and 39.5°, [11,41,54,55] while the presence of the graphitic carbon is validated by the diffraction peak at 26.3°. [54] The peak at 40.5°i s attributed to the diffractions of the (110) planes of Mo in Mo 2 CT x .…”

Carbon Dots Mediated In Situ Confined Growth of Bi Clusters on g‐C3N4 Nanomeshes for Boosting Plasma‐Assisted Photoreduction of CO2

“…The high-resolution XPS spectrum of C 1s (Figure 2f) can be deconvolved into three peaks at 284.8, 286.1, and 288.0 eV, corresponding to the surface adsorption of carbon, C−NH 2 , and sp [2] bonded carbon (NCN), respectively. [43][44][45] The N 1s peaks (Figure 2g) located at 398.6, 399.5, 400.7, and 406.1 eV corresponds to CNC, CN, CNH, and charging effect, respectively. [41,44,46,47] It is worth noting that the peak positions of CNH 2 and NCN in the C 1s spectrum of CNB-2 composites are shifted toward smaller binding energies compared to pure g-C 3 N 4 (Figure S6, Supporting Information), attributed to the strong interaction between ultrasmall Bi/CDs sites and the g-C 3 N 4 framework during hydrothermal process.…”

ZIF ‐67 derived ternary NiMnCo ‐based nanoporous carbon material for methanol oxidation reaction

“…To analyze the N chemical state, fine‐scanned N 1 s spectra were fitted (Figure 6G). By deconvoluting the N peak, three different forms of nitrogen may be obtained: pyridinic N, pyrrolic N, and graphitic N at 398.4 eV, 400.1 eV, and 401.1 eV, respectively 45 . The XPS of C 1 s may be deconvoluted into three peaks (Figure 6F), each centered at 284.6, 285.6, and 288.8 eV and assigned to C‐C/C=C, C‐N, and C=O species, respectively 46 …”