Preparation of porous carbon nanowires for hydrogen evolution reaction

Abstract

Abstract Hydrogen for clean energy resources has attracted more and more attention, and water splitting for hydrogen production also has been widely studied. Electrocatalysis water splitting is considered the most efficient method for hydrogen production. In this work, we prepared a metal-free porous carbon nanowires catalyst with an electrostatic spinning method using granular poly styrol as the precursor and zinc chloride as the activating agent for forming a porous structure. The obtained catalysts exhibited a plentiful porous structure and an SSA value, which is beneficial for catalyzing hydrogen evolution reactions. The SSA is up to 329 m2 g−1, and the OP value at 10 mA·cm−2 is 386 mV. The materials presented good stability for hydrogen evolution reaction.