Transition Metal-Promoted V₂CO₂ (MXenes): A New and Highly Active Catalyst for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Developing alternatives to precious Pt for hydrogen production from water splitting is central to the area of renewable energy. This work predicts extremely high catalytic activity of transition metal (Fe, Co, and Ni) promoted two-dimensional MXenes, fully oxidized vanadium carbides (V₂CO₂), for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The first-principle calculations show that the introduction of transition metal can greatly weaken the strong binding between hydrogen and oxygen and engineer the hydrogen adsorption free energy to the optimal value ≈0 eV by choosing the suitable type and coverage of the promoters as well as the active sites. Strain engineering on the performance of transition metal promoted V₂CO₂ further reveals that the excellent HER activities can maintain well while those poor ones can be modulated to be highly active. This study provides new possibilities for cost-effective alternatives to Pt in HER and for the application of 2D MXenes.