In Situ Growth of Double-Sided Fe/Co/Ni Nanofilms on a Two-Dimensional Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene Surface for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Activity

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a critical electrochemical reaction in sustainable energy production technologies. Due to slow reaction kinetics, it is essential to explore efficient nonprecious metal catalysts. This paper reports that the metal nanofilms were physically doped via magnetron sputtering technology on both sides of carbon cloth with single-layer MXene (Ti3C2Tx) attached. In the synthesized electrocatalysts, d-MNi demonstrated excellent HER performance in a 1 M KOH alkaline electrolyte. At current densities of 10 and 50 mA cm–2, the overpotentials are reduced to 37 and 231 mV, respectively, with performance surpassing that of the commercial 20% Pt/C. Furthermore, the potential variation of d-MNi following current density tests at 10 and 20 mA cm–2 is negligible within a continuous 48 h period. The results provide valuable insights for the design of high-performance MXene-supported metal nanofilm electrocatalysts.