Ni-Ti₃C₂ MXene composite derived from Ni-metal organic framework for electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction in acidic and alkaline medium

MOFs derived metal composites are found to be a potential electrocatalyst for energy storage and conversion process. In this work, Ni composite with MXene (Ni-Ti₃C₂) was synthesized by calcination of Ni-MOF at 650 °C and characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, FTIR and BET analysis. After calcination, the derived Ni composited Ti₃C₂ showed a high porosity and high surface area as compared to Ti₃C₂. The derived material was further used as electrode for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) and tested by various electrochemical analysis viz. Cyclic voltammetry (CV), Electrochemical impedance analysis (EIS) and Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV) in alkaline medium. The derived Ni-Ti₃C₂ in basic medium displays a small Tafel value of 56.15 mV/dec with acquired voltage of 181.15 mV due to the surface area and accessible catalytic active sites, which provides excellent mass transfer properties for derived Ni-Ti₃C₂ composite in basic medium. The kinetics of the HER reaction was found better in Ni-Ti₃C₂ MXene composite in basic medium than in acidic medium. The charge transfer resistances were obtained from the EIS plot and were found to be 3.98 Ω and 2.34 Ω for Ti₃C₂ and Ni-Ti₃C₂ respectively in acidic medium and 3.12 Ω and 1.98 Ω in basic medium. The low resistance observed for Ni-Ti₃C₂ in basic medium proves a higher electrocatalytic activity in Ni-Ti₃C₂ than Ti₃C₂. The cyclic stability of the Ni-Ti₃C₂ in basic medium was higher than Ti₃C₂. Thus the overall results show that the prepared composite is a potential catalyst for HER applications.