Waste silk fabric derived N-doped carbon as a self-supported electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

Developing a highly efficient, stable and cost-effective electrocatalyst is critical for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER). Herein, we present a facile approach for constructing self-supported N-doped carbon electrocatalysts derived from waste silk fabric for HER. After activation of KCl and the thermal carbonization process, the resulting catalysts present a unique porous three-dimensional(3D) structure that can expose more active sites and will promote the efficient diffusion of the electrolyte. As an N-rich and self-supported HER catalyst, the synthetic materials exhibit outstanding electrocatalytic performance with the overpotential of 336.33 ± 26.22 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 and long-term stability (more than 24 h). This work will explore a completely novel approach to prepare a variety of self-supporting 3D electrodes from biomass for various applications. [Display omitted] •This manuscript proposes a facile method to construct a self-supported electrocatalysts derived from waste silk fabric.•The N-rich catalyst with porous three-dimensional(3D) structure exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic performance.•The self-supporting 3D electrodes from biomass can be applied in various fields.