Direct Laser-Induced Molybdenum Carbides for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Molybdenum carbides have great potential as cost-effective electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) due to their platinum-like catalytic behavior. However, it is challenging to prepare molybdenum carbides using nontoxic and cost-effective processes. Here, a direct laser-induced and precursor-free process is developed to synthesize molybdenum carbides as HER catalysts. Attributing to the self-assembly mechanism, a gelatin-mediated metal-ion matrix can be converted to hierarchically porous molybdenum carbides (MoCx) under a high-temperature laser-induced carbonization process. The resulting MoCx exhibits excellent stability and activity for the HER, with an overpotential of 170 mV at 10 mA cm–2. The laser-based, scalable, robust, and cost-effective manufacturing process for molybdenum carbides could be extended to other carbides for various applications.