Bionic flower-shaped carbon coated Ni3N nanosheets supported on hollow carbon array for hydrogen evolution reaction

The keys to future energy transformation is the development of stable and efficient non-precious electrocatalysts. Here, we demonstrate a novel synthesis method for ultra-thin carbon coated Ni3N nanosheets supported by carbon array with bionic flower structure in-situ grown on nickel foam (C@Ni3N@C/NF), in which the hollow carbon rods supporting the carbon-coated Ni3N nanosheets at the bottom. And the hollow carbon rod can accelerate the transport of electrons to the ultra-thin 2D Ni3N nanosheet through a one-dimensional directional structure. The obtained C@Ni3N@C/NF as a monometallic nickel-based catalyst exhibits excellent HER electrocatalytic performance in 1 M KOH, which only need the overpotential of 60 mV to reach the current density of -10 mA cm- 2. More importantly, this method can provide new ideas for the synthesis of other non-precious metal electrocatalysts with biomimetic structure.