Degradation-resistant waste plastics derived carbon supported MoS2 electrocatalyst: high-nitrogen dependent activity for hydrogen evolution reaction

It is still a great challenge to design a simple, low-cost and highly active catalyst for the industrial production of hydrogen from water electrolysis. Herein, we report a synthesis of molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) supported on carbon supports with high concentration of doped-nitrogen derived from large scale industrial waste plastics, i.e. melamine (CWM) and polyurethane (CWPU), by a simple hydrothermal reaction. Few layers of MoS2 nanosheets with high catalytic activity can be very-well dispersed on CWM and CWPU. The supports with high-nitrogen content can not only greatly improve the conductivity of supported MoS2 nanosheets, but also provide additional active sites with the presence of high pyridinic-N content. The synergistic effects between the MoS2 nanosheet and CWM and CWPU contribute to high hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. As the concentration of doped-N increases, the HER performance of MoS2-based catalysts is improved. MoS2/CWM 1:1 with the highest nitrogen content (11.1 wt %) shows the lowest overpotential of 56 mV at 10 mA cm(-2), the smallest Tafel slope of 36.6 mV.dec(-1), and the highest exchange current density of 0.35 mA cm(-2) in acidic condition, which are comparable to that of commercial 20% Pt/C. (c) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.