Formation of hierarchical Co-decorated Mo2C hollow spheres for enhanced hydrogen evolution

Water electrolysis has been regarded as a promising technology to produce clean hydrogen fuel with high purity. However, large-scale water electrolysis has been greatly hindered due to the lack of non-noble metal catalysts with high catalytic performance. Benefitting from unique hollow structures with large surface area and adjustable chemical compositions, hollow design plays an important role in improving the electrocatalytic performance for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report an effective multi-step strategy to prepare hierarchical Co-decorated Mo2C hollow spheres (CMCHSs) as electrocatalyst for HER. To be specific, the preparation process involves a metal-chelated polymerization and a subsequent surface modulation process. Owing to the unique hollow structure and incorporation of Co species, the as-prepared CMCHSs demonstrate largely enhanced HER performance with a low overpotential of 139 mV at the current density of 10 mA·cm−2 and good cycling durability in acid. The present research work highlights a new feasible strategy for the design of HER electrocatalyst via hollow designs and surface engineering.