Drop-coated C2N electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

•Novel C2N based electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER).•C2N based electrode has an excellent stability for HER.•Pt coated C2N shows a Tafel slope of 53 mV/dec and an overpotential 33 mV. In this work, a novel catalyst based on holey nitrogenated graphene (C2N) was developed for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). C2N nanosheets were deposited on Fluorine doped Tin Oxide substrate by using a facile drop-coating method. Electrochemical tests indicated that C2N based work electrode exhibited excellent stability in acidic environment. To improve its catalytic performance, various noble-metal nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of C2N using physical vapor deposition, including Au, Cu, Co, Ni and Pt. The size most particles was observed to be 3–5 nm, which was beneficial for catalyst reaction. Among those samples with different metal particles, Pt coated C2N multi-catalysts exhibited an overpotential of 33 mV and Tafel slope of 53 mV/dec, which outperformed other metal particles, and also pure Pt particles or C2N nanosheets without metallic particles, demonstrating its great potential of multi-catalyst Pt/C2N for HER application.