Fabrication of TiO₂ nanofibers/MXene Ti₃C₂ nanocomposites for photocatalytic H₂ evolution by electrostatic self-assembly

Semiconductor based photocatalytic water splitting as a most bright method to solve the energy crisis has been widely studied in the past decade. Among them, MXene has become the focus of current research as a new, effective and inexpensive promoter-free catalyst. Herein, a novel 1D/2D photocatalyst of TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ is successfully prepared by electrostatic self-assembly technique. The maximum H₂ production rate of TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ nanocomposites is up to 6.979 mmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹, which is 3.8 times that of pure TiO₂ nanofibers (NFs). This improvement in photocatalytic H₂ production of TiO₂/Ti₃C₂ is originated from the heterogenous interface between TiO₂ NFs and Ti₃C₂ nanosheets. It brings higher photocatalytic efficiency and maintains its cycle H₂ production capacity. There is almost no decrease in photocatalytic H₂ production efficiency after 5 cycles. It is believed that this study can offer an innovative pathway to design high performance and low-cost photocatalytic materials composed of MXene co-catalyst for efficient water splitting H₂ production over semiconductors.