Regeneration of textile sludge into Cu8S5 decorated N, S self-doped interconnected porous carbon as an advanced bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

The utilization of hazardous textile sludge as a precursor for energy production has broad practical application prospects for both sustainable economic and environmental development. Herein, a novel Cu8S5 decorated N, S self-doped interconnected porous carbon (Cu8S5/NSC) with abundant mass transfer channel is successfully designed through a direct pyrolysis strategy of textile sludge waste. Benefiting from the synergistic catalysis between Cu8S5 nanoparticles and the abundant mass transfer channel of the N, S self-doped porous carbon, the Cu8S5/NSC-900 catalyst exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability with small overpotentials of 313 and 137 mV at 10 mA cm(-2) for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), respectively. Significantly, the resultant water splitting system achieves a current density of 10 mA cm(-2) at 1.64 V, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C||RuO2. Therefore, this study offers an environment-compatible route for synthesizing attractive bifunctional catalysts for water splitting directly from textile sludge waste.

Automated summary

The utilization of hazardous textile sludge as a precursor for energy production has significant practical implications for sustainable economic and environmental development. In this study, a novel Cu8S5/NSC catalyst with abundant mass transfer channel was successfully designed through direct pyrolysis of textile sludge waste. The catalyst exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity and stability, outperforming the benchmark Pt/C||RuO2 in water splitting for energy production.