Electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen (HER) is the core technology for obtaining "green hydrogen", but existing precious metal catalysts (such as platinum) are expensive and difficult to apply on a large scale. Scientists are turning their attention to the two-dimensional material MXene.
The currently synthesized MXenes mainly come from MAX phase precursors, and the controlled synthesis of tungsten based MXenes is extremely challenging due to the instability predicted by calculations. Therefore, finding suitable synthesis strategies to prepare efficient HER catalysts still faces many challenges.
On March 28, 2025, the journal Nature Synthesis reported that researchers used theoretical calculations to guide precise etching of covalently bonded tungsten layers, obtaining atomically ordered W2TiC2Tx MXene and solving the problem of interlayer delamination.

In this work, researchers predicted the etching feasibility of tungsten layers in (W, Ti) 4C4 ₋ y through DFT calculations and found that excessive aluminum doping (2Al precursor) can reduce oxygen impurities and promote selective etching. They synthesized ordered double transition metal MXene (W2TiC2Tx) by selectively etching covalently bonded tungsten layers from non MAX layered carbide (W, Ti) 4C4-y precursors using HCl LiF.
Research has shown that the peeled W2TiC2Tx MXene exhibits excellent HER performance, with an overpotential of only 144mV at a current density of 10mA cm-2, far superior to existing W1.33CtX MXene. DFT shows that the hydrogen adsorption free energy (Δ Gad=-0.37eV) of the W-Ti3 coordination site on the tungsten titanium mixed surface is close to thermal neutrality and superior to that of the pure tungsten surface (Δ Gad=-1.79eV).
In addition, the material has a high conductivity of 427 Scm-1 at room temperature, which conforms to the variable range hopping model (VRH), indicating that interlayer electron transport is dominant. Under 800nm femtosecond laser, the material exhibits anti saturation absorption behavior, and its high conductivity and stability make it potentially valuable in optoelectronic and laser applications.
This study breaks through the traditional synthesis paradigm of MXene and provides new ideas for constructing efficient HER catalysts and novel 2D materials.

Literature name: Synthesis of a 2D tungsten MXene for electrocatalysis。

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