Highly dispersed Ru nanospecies on N-doped carbon/MXene composite for highly efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution

Hydrogen has emerged as a promising environmentally friendly energy source. The development of low-cost, highly active, stable, and easily synthesized catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) remains a significant challenge. This study explored the synthesis of nitrogen-doped MXene-based composite catalysts for enhanced HER performance. By thermally decomposing RuCl3 coordinated with melamine and formaldehyde resin, we successfully introduced nitrogen-doped carbon (N-C) with highly dispersed ruthenium (Ru) onto the MXene surface. The calcination temperature played a crucial role in controlling the size of Ru nanoparticles (Ru NPs) and the proportion of Ru single-atom (Ru SA), thereby facilitating the synergistic enhancement of HER performance by Ru NPs and Ru SA. The resulting catalyst prepared with a calcination temperature of 600 ℃, Ti3C2Tx-N/C-Ru-600 (TNCR-600), exhibited exceptional HER activity (η10 = 17 mV) and stability (160 h) under alkaline conditions. This work presented a simple and effective strategy for synthesizing composite catalysts, offering new insights into the design and regulation of high-performance Ru-based catalysts for hydrogen production.