Abstract:Mo2C possesses the electronic structure and catalytic properties similar to that of Pt-like noble metals, thus been suggested to be an encouraging non-noble metal electrocatalysts substitute to the noble metals. However, pure Mo2C has poor conductivity and slow hydrogen release kinetics. In order to improve the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution performance of Mo2C, this work employed a low-temperature molten salt method to prepare several self-supporting Mo2C electrocatalysts on carbon fiber paper (CFP). The effects of molybdenum sources (Mo, MoO3), nickel sources (Ni, Ni(NO3)2) and carbon black on the phase, microstructure/morphology and electrocatalytic performance of the synthesized product were investigated. The results show that the introduction of carbon black and Ni can promote the refinement of Mo2C grains and the formation of wrinkled structure on its surface, thus providing more active sites. When using MoO3 as molybdenum source, Ni(NO3)2 makes the morphology of Mo2C transforming from granular to flower-like, which greatly increases its specific surface area, and also promotes the electron transfer efficiency in the synthesized Ni(NO3)2-Mo2CCBO@CFP composite electrode. This composite electrode shows the best HER activity, with the smallestη10 of 117 mV and the lowest Tafel slop of 73.8 mV dec-1.