Waste biomass derived carbon supported Mo2C/C composite materials for heavy metal adsorption and hydrogen evolution reaction

Application of waste biomass resources in heavy metal adsorption and new energy development is of great significance to improving environmental pollution and the adjustment of energy structure. For this purpose, we designed a simple method for preparing porous Mo2C/C composite materials based on resource-rich biomass carbon (derived from waste pine wood) and ammonium molybdate, and successfully applied it to the above field. The effects of holding time and sintering temperature on the phase compositions and morphological structures of samples were investigated, and the heavy adsorption capacity (Cr(Ⅲ)) and hydrogen evolution reaction of composite materials were also studied. The results showed that porous biomass Mo2C/C composite materials had significantly higher oxidation resistance, and more prominent pore structure as compared to the pretreated biomass carbon. In addition, porous biomass Mo2C/C composite materials showed excellent adsorption performance for heavy metal Cr(Ⅲ) and catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction performance, its adsorption capacity and Tafel slope were 43.2 mg/g and 123.9 mV/dec, respectively.