Nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots via a facile reflux assisted polymerization of N-Methyl-Pyrrolidone for hydrogen evolution reaction

Nitrogen-doped carbon quantum dots (N-CQDs) have shown great potential in catalysis for energy conversion. In this work, a facile and one-pot reflux assisted polymerization of N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) was developed to synthesize the N-CQDs with large scales. The as-obtained N-CQDs possess a high N/C molar ratio of 46% and the doped Nitrogen existed mainly as pyrrolic N. More interesting, the N-CQDs exhibited satisfying catalytic activity towards hydrogen evolution reduction (HER) due to the existed pyrrolic N. Compared with other synthesis methods, our method is more convenient and can be amplified under atmospheric pressure, which showed great practical application significance.