Synthesis of 2D titanium carbide (Ti3C2) for efficient hydrogen evolution

Abstract

Environmental pollution and energy shortage have been an issue for years and has garnered many interests to develop clean and renewable energy. While hydrogen is considered as a promising and future form of energy with high heat capacity, it is pivotal to develop an inexpensive method to produce hydrogen. Electrochemical water splitting is a method that has been intensively investigated because it only requires water which is an abundant source to produce hydrogen. However, noble metals such as platinum, performs best as electrochemical hydrogen evolution electrodes, which impedes the large-scale water splitting at a low cost. Thus, there is a need to find alternative efficient yet cost-effective electrodes for hydrogen evolution.

This project aims to incorporate MXene, a newly discovered two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterial that is cheap to synthesize and possess exceptional properties, to develop a MXene-based electrode for electrochemical water splitting. Various procedures and parameters were explored and optimized to obtain a robust and repeatable MXene synthesis method. Through electrophoretic deposition, MXene was fast deposited onto a nickel foam, forming a compact layer which was followed by electrochemical deposition of cobalt phosphide. After performing hydrogen evolution on various substrates, the combination of 15 min MXene and 10 min cobalt phosphide was found to have the best efficacy and catalytic activity. It was then characterized through scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray diffraction, Tafel plot and Nyquist plot. The characterization techniques provided insights to the design of future MXene-based electrode for electrochemical water splitting.