Preparation of Mo₂C–carbon nanomaterials for hydrogen evolution reaction

Highly active, stable and low-cost noble metal-free electrocatalysts are essential for production of hydrogen. However, preparation of such catalysts is still highly challenging so far. In this work, the Mo₂C–carbon nanomaterials have been prepared by controlled thermal technique. By controlling concentration of the reactants in the experimental condition, the Mo₂C–carbon nanomaterials have been fabricated, which leads to decreases in contact resistance b/w Mo₂C–carbon nanomaterials and graphitic carbon atoms. As a result, the Mo₂C–carbon nanomaterial electrode shows remarkable activity for hydrogen evolution reactions with a small onset overpotential of 95 mV, a Tafel slope of 62 mV dec⁻¹, an high exchange current density of 0.32 mA cm⁻², good stability during long-term 1000 cycles and exhibits long-term durability for several days. This study opens a new method for the preparation of highly active non-noble electrode for production of hydrogen from water splitting.