Fig. 1: Formation of H-Mo2C/NG.

a Schematic diagram of the synthesis of Mo2C/NG and H-Mo2C/NG. b Various reaction states of ISNP and ISNS along the reaction pathway. Inset shows the corresponding reaction ΔH diagram. The reaction ΔH for TSNS conversion to TSNS-C (–2.48 eV) is lower than that of TSNP conversion to TSNP-C (–0.73 eV), indicating that water promotes the formation of Mo2C during carbonization process.