Interface and doping engineering of V2C-MXene-based electrocatalysts for enhanced electrocatalysis of overall water splitting

The restacking and oxidizable nature of vanadium-based carbon/nitride (V2C-MXene) poses a significant challenge. Herein, tellurium (Te)-doped V2C/V2O3 electrocatalyst is constructed via mild H2O2 oxidation and calcination treatments. Especially, this work rationally exploits the inherent easy oxidation characteristic associated with MXene to alter the interfacial information, thereby obtaining stable self-generated vanadium-based heterointerfaces. Meanwhile, the microetching effect of H2O2 creates numerous pores to address the restacking issues. Besides, Te element doping settles the issue of awkward levels of absorption/desorption ability of intermediates. The electrocatalyst obtains an unparalleled hydrogen evolution reaction and oxygen evolution reaction with the overpotential of 83.5 and 279.8 mV at -10 and 10 mA cm(-2), respectively. In addition, the overall water-splitting device demonstrates a low cell voltage of 1.41 V to obtain 10 mA cm(-2). Overall, the inherent drawbacks of MXene can be turned into benefits based on the planning strategy to create these electrocatalysts with desirable reaction kinetics.