Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanofiber/Molybdenum Disulfide Nanocomposites Derived from Bacterial Cellulose for High-Efficiency Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

To remit energy crisis and environmental deterioration, non-noble metal nanocomposites have attracted extensive attention, acting as a fresh kind of cost-effective electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this work, hierarchically organized nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber/molybdenum disulfide (pBC-N/MoS2) nanocomposites were successfully prepared via the combination of in situ polymerization, high-temperature carbonization process, and hydrothermal reaction. Attributing to the uniform coating of polyaniline on the surface of bacterial cellulose, the nitrogen-doped carbon nanofiber network acts as an excellent three-dimensional template for hydrothermal growth of MoS2 nanosheets. The obtained hierarchical pBC-N/MoS2 nanocomposites exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activity for HER with small overpotential of 108 mV, high current density of 8.7 mA cm–2 at η = 200 mV, low Tafel slope of 61 mV dec–1, and even excellent stability. The greatly improved performance is benefiting from the highly exposed active edge sites of MoS2 nanosheets, the intimate connection between MoS2 nanosheets and the highly conductive nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers and the three-dimensional networks thus formed. Therefore, this work provides a novel strategy for design and application of bacterial cellulose and MoS2-based nanocomposites as cost-effective HER eletrocatalysts.