Mn boosted the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution of N, P co-doped Mo2C via synergistically tuning the electronic structures

Abstract

Molybdenum carbide (Mo₂C) is a promising candidate to replace Pt for highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The heteroatom doping strategy is feasible to tune the electronic structures of Mo₂C for attaining desirable Mo–H bonding strength. In response, a Mn dopant is proposed to synergistically tune the electronic structures of N, P co-doped Mo₂C (denoted as NP-Mo₂C), and an optimal |ΔG_H*| of active sites can be obtained, thus leading to prominent catalytic performances for the HER with a small Tafel slope of 51 mV dec⁻¹. Moreover, the enhanced HER properties should be attributed to lower electrochemical resistance and better intrinsic activity. This work proposes a convenient approach to design low-cost and high-performance electrocatalysts via heteroatom doping.