Molybdenum carbide nanoparticle decorated hierarchical tubular carbon superstructures with vertical nanosheet arrays for efficient hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Hierarchical nanohybrids of Mo₂C nanoparticle decorated carbon tube-sheet superstructures (Mo₂C/CTSSs) are prepared via the carbonization of nickel molybdate/polyimide and the subsequent acid leaching. Possessing vertically oriented and periodically patterned carbon nanosheet arrays with hierarchical porosity and nitrogen dopant, the Mo₂C/CTSS manifests outstanding hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance with a low overpotential and a small Tafel slope in both acidic (97 mV and 48 mV decade⁻¹) and basic media (95 mV and 54 mV decade⁻¹), superior to its counterpart with randomly arranged nanosheets and comparable to the state-of-the-art HER catalysts.