Heterostructured Mo2N–Mo2C Nanoparticles Coupled with N‐Doped Carbonized Wood to Accelerate the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Abstract

Mo2C is a promising non‐precious hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalyst. However, regulating the strong hydrogen adsorption characteristics of Mo2C and finding suitable support electrodes are essential processes before Mo2C can replace Pt to realize a sustainable hydrogen economy. Herein, the facile synthesis of heterostructured Mo2N–Mo2C nanoparticles on N‐doped carbonized wood (Mo2N–Mo2C/N‐CW) as a self‐supported electrode through carbonization and NH3 plasma treatment is demonstrated. The synergistic effects of heterostructured Mo2N–Mo2C and N‐CW with aligned microchannels provide enhanced catalytic activity, fast charge transfer kinetics, additional active site exposure, and rapid transport of the electrolyte and H2 bubbles, which improves the HER performance. Consequently, the Mo2N–Mo2C/N‐CW electrode exhibits superior HER performance with low overpotentials of only 79 and 311 mV to reach 10 and 500 mA cm−2 in an acidic solution, respectively. It also exhibits long‐term stability for 20 h in the high‐current‐density region (110 mA cm−2). The density functional theory (DFT) calculations at various sites reveal that the heterointerface of Mo2N and Mo2C promoted the catalytic activity by optimizing the adsorption/desorption of hydrogen.

Keywords

• carbonized wood
• hydrogen evolution reactions
• Mo2N–Mo2C heterointerfaces
• plasma treatment
• self-supported electrodes