Anchoring Sub-Nanometer Pt Clusters on Crumpled Paper-Like MXene Enables High Hydrogen Evolution Mass Activity

Platinum (Pt)-based electrocatalysts are the benchmark catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); however, they are limited by the scarcity and high price. Introducing an adequate substrate to disperse and anchor Pt-based species is a feasible pathway to improve the utilization efficiency. Herein, a quick and continuous spray drying route is proposed to fabricate 3D crumpled Ti3C2Tx MXene loaded with sub-nanometer platinum clusters (Pt/MXene). The 3D crumpled structure inhibits the restacking of layered MXene nanosheets and guarantees the fully exposure of Pt clusters. The as-prepared catalyst exhibits excellent HER performances comparable to commercial Pt/C, including a low overpotential of 34 mV to reach a current density of 10 mA cm(-2), a superior mass activity (1847 mA mg(Pt)(-1)), a small Tafel slope (29.7 mV dec(-1)), and a high turnover frequency (10.66 H-2 s(-1)). The improved activity of Pt/MXene can be attributed to the charge transfer from Pt clusters to MXene, which weakens the hydrogen adsorption, as evidenced by the density functional theory calculations. The present contribution proposes a novel strategy to anchor low-mass-loading sub-nanometer precious metal clusters on crumpled MXene with fully exposed active sites for catalysis.

Automated summary

This study proposes a novel method to fabricate 3D crumpled MXene catalyst loaded with sub-nanometer platinum clusters, which exhibits excellent performance for HER comparable to commercial Pt/C. The enhanced activity of Pt/MXene can be attributed to the charge transfer from Pt clusters to MXene, weakening hydrogen adsorption.