Ultra-high electrochemical catalytic activity of MXenes

Abstract

Cheap and abundant electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) have been widely pursued for their practical application in hydrogen-energy technologies. In this work, I present systematical study of the hydrogen evolution reactions on MXenes (Mo 2 X and W 2 X, X = C and N) based on density-functional-theory calculations. I find that their HER performances strongly depend on the composition, hydrogen adsorption configurations, and surface functionalization. I show that W 2 C monolayer has the best HER activity with near-zero overpotential at high hydrogen density among all of considered pure MXenes, and hydrogenation can efficiently enhance its catalytic performance in a wide range of hydrogen density further, while oxidization makes its activity reduced significantly. I further show that near-zero overpotential for HER on Mo 2 X monolayers can be achieved by oxygen functionalization. My calculations predict that surface treatment, such as hydrogenation and oxidization, is critical to enhance the catalytic performance of MXenes. I expect that MXenes with HER activity comparable to Pt in a wide range of hydrogen density can be realized by tuning composition and functionalizing, and promotes their applications into hydrogen-energy technologies.