In-situ synthesis of carbon-coated Mo2C: An exceptionally efficient and robust electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)

Abstract

In the present work, the Mo2C electrocatalyst has been synthesized using waste plastic as carbon source. The use of plastic bottle has been chosen to reduce the cost of electrocatalyst as well to address the environmental issues caused due to these wastes. The pure phase sample was synthesized at 800 °C by carburizing MoO3 in an autoclave. The synthesized sample shows high activity towards HER with a lower Tafel slope of 85.7 mVdec−1. One of the exceptional features of the developed electrocatalyst is the long-term stability up to 7 days as determined by chronopotentiometry results. The improved activity and stability have been attributed to the presence of graphene like structures encapsulating the Mo2C particles. The presence of carbon also shows higher storage ability with an electrochemical double layer capacitance (EDLC, Cdl) of 91.0 μF. The synthesized sample shows an efficient and stable electrocatalyst towards HER.