Zn, S, N self-doped carbon material derived from waste tires for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Developing multielement doped carbon material (CM) is extremely meaningful due to the synergistic regulation on electronic and molecular structure, which can endow catalysts with high electrochemical properties. However, it is a challenging issue owing to the complex and difficult preparation process. Herein, a novel waste tires-derived Zn, S, N self-doped CM is prepared and used for efficiently electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The electronic state and molecular structure are effectively adjusted by forming C–N and C–S bonds in CM, and the Zn 3d configuration could participate in molecular orbital hybridization to produce the synergistic effect with regulation of N and S, thus improving the electrocatalytic HER activity. The obtained Zn, S, N self-doped CM requires only an overpotential of 50 mV at 10 mA cm−2, which is close to that of Pt/C (42 mV). The cell voltage of Zn, S, N self-doped CM || RuO2 electrolyze (1.31 V) at 10 mA cm−2 is much smaller than that of Pt/C || RuO2 (1.46 V). This work points out a promising strategy for the development of multielement doped CM applied in electrocatalytic HER and the efficiently resourceful utilization of waste tires.