Nitrogen-doped carbon coated Ni3Mo3N porous microrods as efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Developing efficient non-precious metal-based electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are essential for large-scale hydrogen production. In this work, a highly efficient and durable electrode, comprising nitrogen-doped carbon-coated nickel molybdenum nitride porous microrod array supported by nickel foam (Ni3Mo3N-NC/NF), was prepared through a simple hydrothermal reaction and high-temperature calcination. The Ni3Mo3N-NC/NF catalyst exhibited outstanding HER catalytic activity by achieving the current density of 10 and 100 mA cm-2 at the low overpotentials of 39 and 149 mV, with a Tafel plot of 71 mV dec-1, surpassing most of the reported transition metal nitride catalysts. The excellent electrocatalytic performance could be ascribed to the high intrinsic activity and the metallic conductive nature of Ni3Mo3N, the anti-oxidation ability of the nitrogen-doped carbon layer, and the large surface area provided by porous microrod array. Hence, this work shed light on the enormous potential of transition metal nitrides as an advanced class of electrocatalysts for efficient HER.