Nickel and Molybdenum Composites Decorated Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Catalysts from Spent Coffee Grounds for Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution

Abstract

Biomass‐derived materials can help develop efficient, environmentally friendly and cost‐effective catalysts, thereby improving the sustainability of hydrogen production. Herein, we propose a simple method to produce nickel and molybdenum composites decorated spent coffee grounds (SCG) as an efficient catalyst, SCG(200)@NiMo, for electrocatalytic hydrogen production. The porous carbon supporter derived form SCG provided a larger surface, prevented aggregation during the high temperature pyrolysis, optimized the electronic structure by N and provided a reducing atmosphere for the oxides reduction to form heterojunctions. The sieved SCG showed obvious improvement of HER performance and enhanced conductivity and long‐term durability. The obtained SCG(200)@NiMo exhibits the highest electrochemical performance for the hydrogen evolution reaction process, as evidenced by the overpotential of only 127 mV at a current density of ɳ10 and 97.7% catalytic activity retention even after 12 h of operation. This work may stimulate further exploration of efficient electrocatalysts derived from biomass.