V4C3Tx MXene: A promising active substrate for reactive surface modification and the enhanced electrocatalytic oxygen evolution activity

Cheng‐Feng Du,Shuiqing Li,Wei Fang,Xiaoli Sun,Yonghui Wang,Qingyu Yan,Yao Jing,Hong Yu,Xianhu Liu

doi:10.1002/inf2.12078

Abstract

AbstractPresented are the synthesis, characterizations, and reactive surface modification (RSM) of a novel nine atomic layered V4C3T x MXene. With the advantages of the multilayered V4C3T x MXene that can simultaneously support the RSM reaction and keep the inner skeleton stable, a series of amorphous Ni/Fe/V‐ternary oxide hydroxides thin layer can be successfully modified on the surface of the V4C3T x MXene (denoted as MOOH @V4C3T x, M = Ni, Fe, and V) without disrupting its original structure. Attributed to the in situ reconstruction of highly active oxide hydroxide layer, the nanohybrids exhibited an enhanced oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity and excellent long‐time stability over 70 hours. In particular, a current density of 10 mA cm−2 can be reached by the nanohybrid with the optimized Ni/Fe ratio at an overpotential (η) as low as 275.2 mV, which is comparable to most of the state‐of‐the‐art OER catalysts and better than other MXene‐based derivatives. Demonstrated by the tunable physicochemical properties and excellent structural stability of these nanohybrids, we may envision the promising role of the M4X3‐based MXenes as substrates for a wide range of energy conversion and storage materials.image

Highlights

After the in situ surface transformation during oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process, a series of nanohybrids that consist of V4C3Tx MXene with Ni/Fe/V-ternary oxide hydroxides thin layer surface modification were obtained
As demonstrated by some in situ studies, the surface of electrocatalyst will go through a reformation, forming the surface metal hydroxides/oxide hydroxides (MOOH) species which might be the OER active species during OER process.[8,9,10,37]
For the reactive surface modification (RSM)-V4C3Tx nanoprecursors, the surface alloy nanoparticles were expected to be the sacrificial templates, which can undergo in situ generation of MOOH species anchoring on the surface of V4C3Tx MXene

Summary

Introduction

After the in situ surface transformation during OER process, a series of nanohybrids that consist of V4C3Tx MXene with Ni/Fe/V-ternary oxide hydroxides thin layer surface modification (denoted as MOOH@V4C3Tx, M = Ni, Fe, and V) were obtained. With the high OER activity of the surface ternary oxide hydroxide layers and the stable conductive skeleton of the V4C3Tx MXene, V4C3Tx-based nanohybrid revealed excellent stability over 70-hours long-time OER process.

Results

Conclusion