Porous carbon incorporated β-Mo_2C hollow sphere: An efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

摘要

Hydrogen is undoubtedly considered as the cleanest energy source and hence the urgency for production of H2is a concern to the scientific community. The major bottleneck for electrocatalytic hydrogen production is still exists as the reported catalysts, mainly noble metal based, are extremely costly. Thus the fabrication of cheap and noble metal free electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) is still seeking. Here, a simplistic method is developed for the synthesis of carbon assimilated molybdenum carbide (β-Mo2C) hollow sphere which showed effective electrocatalysis for HER. The synthesis of desired β-Mo2CC hollow sphere is based on high temperature carbothermal reduction (800 °C in 10%-H2/N2atmosphere) of carbon incorporated MoO2spheres. The synthesized β-Mo2C with an optimal carbon loading reaches 10 mA/cm−2current density at a low overpotential of 146 mV with a small tafel slope of 90 mV dec−1for the electrochemical hydrogen evolution (HER) in 0.5 M H2SO4. The improved catalytic performance, long-term stability make β-Mo2CC hollow sphere an auspicious HER electrocatalyst.