Boosting Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction by a Cellulose-Derived Nitrogen-Doped Order Carbon Matrix Decorated with Ni Nanoparticles

Biomass-derived catalysts have been broadly developed for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) from water electrolysis because of their natural structure. However, loading metal on this kind of catalyst to improve HER performance may damage the ordered structure of the carbon matrix due to the weak interaction between the biomass base and metal ions. Herein, a facile self-assembly strategy is proposed to fabricate a cellulose-derived high graphitization degree electrocatalyst embedded with nickel nanoparticles (NPs). Based on the pore structure analysis and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, the highly dispersed metal sites and high graphitization degree can be ascribed to the interaction between Ni²⁺ ions and oxidized cellulose. The addition of urea can increase the metal loading amount to further improve the activity. Benefiting from the highly ordered carbon structure and the homogeneously dispersed Ni NPs, Ni NPs/N-doped carbon (Ni-BCN) demonstrates a high HER performance in alkaline media, with an overpotential of 172 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm^–2 and long-term durability. This research introduces a novel strategy to design excellent HER electrocatalysts from biomass recourse.