A “1-methylimidazole-fixation” route to anchor small-sized nitrides on carbon supports as non-Pt catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

A effective “1-methylimidazole (1-MD)-fixation” strategy was developed to anchor small-sized nitrides on carbon supports. The carbon supports used (CNTs (carbon nanotubes), carbon black, reduced graphene oxides) and nitrides (WN, Mo₂N) can be easily tuned. The application of the nitride/CNT hybrids as non-Pt catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) was also demonstrated. It was shown that the performance could be tuned by the kind of the nitride. The combination of WN and Mo₂N simultaneously on CNTs can improve the HER performance obviously. It is expected that the present “fixation” route could be useful to anchor small-sized nitrides on carbon supports for application in electrocatalytic fields.