Highly Efficient, Biochar‐Derived Molybdenum Carbide Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalyst

Abstract

Abstract The establishment of an economic means of hydrogen production by electrochemical water‐splitting can help alleviate the intermittency problem associated with renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, and also provide for the extensive commercialization of fuel cell technologies. To enable this, cheap, active, and stable hydrogen evolution catalysts that can replace precious metal catalysts such as Pt must be developed. Herein, a scalable synthesis of porous Mo 2 C nanostructures derived from biochar, an inexpensive plant byproduct, is reported. The Mo 2 C catalyst materials prepared using this solid‐state method, loaded on planar substrates, require overpotentials of only 35 and 60 mV to drive current densities of −10 and −100 mA cm −2 in 0.50 m H 2 SO 4 solution and exhibit stable operation for >100 h at operating current densities of −10 and −100 mA cm −2 .