Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped MXene as support to form high-performance platinum catalysts for water-electrolysis to produce hydrogen

Abstract

Herein, a nitrogen (N)-doped MXene (N-Ti3C2) with a three-dimensional wrinkled morphology was used as an efficient and stable support material to anchor Pt nanoparticles to form a non-carbon supported catalyst (Pt@N-T) through the coordination interaction between N and O hosted in N-Ti3C2 and Pt. In acidic electrolyte, the resultant Pt@N-T catalyst exhibited an excellent electrocatalytic HER performance with a low overpotential of 11 mV at 10 mA cm−2, which was superior to that of commercial Pt/C (40 mV@10 mA cm−2). In a water-electrolysis cell, the hydrogen yields of Pt@N-T catalyst was also higher than that of the Pt/C catalyst in terms of electric energy consumption. The mechanism of the enhanced catalytic HER activity and stability by Pt@N-T catalyst was explored by theoretical DFT calculations. This work would pave the way for utilizing the MXene family materials as the robust supports toward the rational design of HER electrocatalysts.