Drop-coated C₂N electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

In this work, a novel catalyst based on holey nitrogenated graphene (C₂N) was developed for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). C₂N nanosheets were deposited on Fluorine doped Tin Oxide substrate by using a facile drop-coating method. Electrochemical tests indicated that C₂N based work electrode exhibited excellent stability in acidic environment. To improve its catalytic performance, various noble-metal nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of C₂N using physical vapor deposition, including Au, Cu, Co, Ni and Pt. The size most particles was observed to be 3–5 nm, which was beneficial for catalyst reaction. Among those samples with different metal particles, Pt coated C₂N multi-catalysts exhibited an overpotential of 33 mV and Tafel slope of 53 mV/dec, which outperformed other metal particles, and also pure Pt particles or C₂N nanosheets without metallic particles, demonstrating its great potential of multi-catalyst Pt/C₂N for HER application.