Single-Atom Pt Anchored on Oxygen Vacancy of Monolayer Ti3C2Tx for Superior Hydrogen Evolution

Two-dimensional (2D) MXene-loaded single-atom (SA) catalysts have drawn increasing attention. SAs immobilized on oxygen vacancies (O-V) of MXene are predicted to have excellent catalytic performance; however, they have not yet been realized experimentally. Here Pt SAs immobilized on the O-V of monolayer Ti3C2Tx flakes are constructed by a rapid thermal shock technique under a H-2 atmosphere. The resultant Ti3C2Tx-Pt-SA catalyst exhibits excellent hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) performance, including a small overpotential of 38 mV at 10 mA cm(-2), a high mass activity of 23.21 A mg(Pt)(-1), and a large turnover frequency of 23.45 s(-1) at an overpotential of 100 mV. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations demonstrate that anchoring the Pt SA on the O-V of Ti3C2Tx helps to decrease the binding energy and the hybridization strength between H atoms and the supports, contributing to rapid hydrogen adsorption-desorption kinetics and high activity for the HER.

Automated summary

Two-dimensional MXene-loaded single-atom catalysts have gained increasing attention. Pt single atoms are successfully immobilized on oxygen vacancies of monolayer Ti3C2Tx flakes, and the resulting catalyst shows excellent performance in hydrogen evolution reaction.