Single-atom Pt decorated in heteroatom (N, B, and F)-doped ReS2 Grown on Mo2CTx for efficient pH-universal hydrogen evolution reaction and flexible Zn–air batteries

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) exhibit excellent catalytic performance owing to their high atom utilization efficiency. Meanwhile, members of the 2D MXenes family, particularly Mo2CTx, have recently been identified as promising electrocatalyst and have been used as a potential catalyst supports to anchor single-atom. However, it still has a potential to enhance the performance by increasing surface areas and active sites. Herein, we employ an ionic liquid for coprecipitation with ReO4− salt to synthesis N-, B-, and F-atom-doped ReS2, which is grown evenly on the surface of MoC2Tx MXene, followed by a uniform loading of single-atom Pt on NBF-ReS2. The two-dimensional morphology allows ReS2 to provide a large surface area for loading more single Pt atoms. In addition, the introduction of N, B, and F via the ionic liquid increases the number of active sites. Owing to these properties, the resulting catalyst exhibits extraordinary catalytic activity and stability during the oxygen reduction reaction, oxygen evolution reaction, and hydrogen evolution reaction. Liquid or flexible solid-state rechargeable Zn–air batteries equipped with the proposed Pt/NBF-ReS2/Mo2CTx system are also demonstrated to exhibit superior performance. This work presents a general strategy of preparing heteroatom-doped and layered nanostructures with a uniform loading of single-atom to form conductive electrodes for HER and Zn–air batteries.