N-Doped MoC Nanobelts/Graphene Nanosheets Bonded with Hydroxy Nanocellulose as Flexible and Editable Electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction.

The large-scale application of economically efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is limited in view of the high cost of polymer binders (Nafion) for immobilizing of powder catalysts. In this work, nitrogen-doped molybdenum carbide nanobelts (N-MoC NBs) with porous structure are synthesized through a direct pyrolysis process using the pre-prepared molybdenum oxide nanobelts (MoO NBs). Nanocellulose instead of Nafion-bonded N-MoC NBs (N-MoC@NCs) exhibits superior performance toward HER, because of excellent dispersibility and multiple exposed catalytically active sites. Furthermore, the conductive film composed of N-MoC NBs, graphene nanosheets, and nanocellulose (N-MoC/G@NCs) is fabricated by simple vacuum filtration, as flexible and editable electrode, which possesses excellent performance for scale HER applications. This work not only proposes the potential of nanocellulose to replace Nafion for binding powder catalysts, but also offers a facile strategy to prepare flexible and conductive films for a wide variety of nanomaterials.