Confined growth of pyridinic N–Mo₂C sites on MXenes for hydrogen evolution

Developing low-cost and high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is a key research area for scalable hydrogen production from water electrolysis. Here, a hybrid of nitrogen-doped carbon encapsulated Mo₂C nanodots on Ti₃C₂Tx MXene (Mo₂C/Ti₃C₂Tx@NC) is developed through in s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wang, Hao, Lin, Yanping, Liu, Shuyuan, Li, Jianmin, Bu, Liangmin, Chen, Jianmei, Xiao, Xu, Choi, Jin-Ho, Gao, Lijun, Lee, Jong-Min
Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2022
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154914
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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Summary:Developing low-cost and high-performance hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) electrocatalysts is a key research area for scalable hydrogen production from water electrolysis. Here, a hybrid of nitrogen-doped carbon encapsulated Mo₂C nanodots on Ti₃C₂Tx MXene (Mo₂C/Ti₃C₂Tx@NC) is developed through in situ polymerization of dopamine and a Mo precursor on the Ti₃C₂Tx MXene surface. During the annealing treatment, the polydopamine plays multiple roles in forming N-doped carbon, confining MoO₄²⁻ ions into ultrasmall Mo₂C nanodots, and stabilizing the MXene flakes against spontaneous oxidation. The as-synthesized hybrid exhibits excellent HER activity in acidic electrolyte with an overpotential of 53 mV at 10 mA cm(⁻²) and excellent stability over 30 hours. The combination of experiments and simulations demonstrates that pyridinic N-doped carbon coated Mo₂C nanodots serve as the active sites and Ti₃C₂Tx MXene facilitates the charge transfer, synergistically contributing to the superior HER performance.