Interface-Synergistically Enhanced Acidic, Neutral, and Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction over Mo 2 C/MoO 2 Heteronanorods

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Water electrolysis provides a promising way to achieve sustainable hydrogen production, which strongly depends on highly effective electrocatalysts for industrial application. Herein, Mo 2 C/MoO 2 heteronanorods have been synthesized by means of a simple self-templated carbothermal reduction of polymolybdate-melamine precursor. Through manipulating the pyrolysis temperature, the optimal Mo 2 C/MoO 2 -650 heteronanorods show a low overpotential (168, 290, and 204 mV) to achieve current density of 10 mA cm –2 in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4, 0.1 M PBS, and 1.0 KOH, respectively, which also presents a small Tafel slope (∼58 and 87 mV dec –1 ), high mass activity (115.4 and 33.8 A g –1 at η = 200 mA), and outstanding stability in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 and 1.0 KOH. The superior performance is mainly ascribed to the heterointerfaces between Mo 2 C and MoO 2 promoting synergistic effects, quasi 1D nanostructures facilitating fast charge/mass transfer, and high electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) providing a large number of available sites. This work elucidates a feasible way by heteronanostructure engineering to explore and optimize electrocatalysts in energy chemistry.