MXene Analogue: A 2D Nitridene Solid Solution for High‐Rate Hydrogen Production
Huanyu Jin, Huimin Yu, Haobo Li, Kenneth Davey, Taeseup Song, Ungyu Paik, Shi‐Zhang Qiao
Abstract
Abstract Electrocatalysts for high‐rate hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are crucial to clean fuel production. Nitrogen‐rich 2D transition metal nitride, designated “nitridene”, has shown promising HER performance because of its unique physical/chemical properties. However, its synthesis is hindered by the sluggish growth kinetics. Here for the first time using a catalytic molten‐salt method, we facilely synthesized a V−Mo bimetallic nitridene solid solution, V 0.2 Mo 0.8 N 1.2 , with tunable electrocatalytic property. The molten‐salt synthesis reduces the growth barrier of V 0.2 Mo 0.8 N 1.2 and facilitates V dissolution via a monomer assembly, as confirmed by synchrotron spectroscopy and ex situ electron microscopy. Furthermore, by merging computational simulations, we confirm that the V doping leads to an optimized electronic structure for fast protons coupling to produce hydrogen. These findings offer a quantitative engineering strategy for developing analogues of MXenes for clean energy conversions.