Facile synthesis of cobalt modified 2D titanium carbide with enhanced hydrogen evolution performance in alkaline media

2D transition metal carbides , nitrides and carbonitrides , namely the MXenes, attract more and more attentions due to their unique properties. Here, we report a simple one-step molten salt etching method to prepare Co modified MXene hybrid (Ti 3 C 2 T x :Co) by the reaction of Ti 3 AlC 2 with Lewis acid CoCl 2 at 750 °C. Most of Co atoms aggregates in the interlayered space of Ti 3 C 2 T x . Benefitting from the improved electron charge transfer efficiency and increased active sites, the sulfuric acid treated Ti 3 C 2 T x :Co-12h hybrid exhibits excellent electrocatalytical activity for hydrogen evolution reaction in alkaline media , delivering a current density of 10 mA cm −2 at an overpotential of 103.6 mV, which is lower than most noble metal free MXene based electrocatalysts . The results illustrate that the proposed method is very facile and useful to incorporate mid-to-late transition metals into the MXene phase to prepare MXene based HER electrocatalysts .