Structural Investigation of Cr2CTx/NiFe2O4 MXene Composite as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Water Splitting

The electrocatalytic water splitting offers great potential as an environmentally friendly and sustainable method to produce hydrogen and oxygen, the former serving as a renewable alternative to traditional fossil fuels. MXene, a novel two-dimensional (2D) layered class of materials, has gained enormous attention as an electrocatalyst for water splitting. This versatile material can be tailored to enhance its electroactive surface sites and stability toward electrocatalytic performance. Herein, we have designed a 2D hybrid material, Cr2CTx/NiFe2O4, via an in-situ hydrothermal approach. NiFe2O4 spheres decorated on layered-Cr2CTx are subjected to analysis using XRD, FTIR, TGA, XPS, FESEM, HRTEM-SAED, and optical profilometry. The synthesized hybrid MXene material shows outstanding activity for overall water splitting compared to Cr2CTx and NiFe2O4. Cr2CTx/NiFe2O4 exhibits an overpotential of 144 mV and 159 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2 for hydrogen evolution and oxygen evolution reactions, respectively, and achieves overall water splitting of 1.69 V. This study reveals valuable insights on bi-functional 2D hybrid MXene materials for electrocatalytic water splitting.