Palladium-MXenes aerogel decorated by alkyne functionalized polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a highly efficient catalyst for electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution

A novel alkyne functionalized polyvinyl alcohol (alkyne-PVA) encapsulated palladium-MXenes aerogel was fabricated in two steps, and the structure was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transition electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The as-prepared aerogel is regarded as an efficient electrocatalyst toward hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) after pyrolysis. Indeed, it shows a very efficient catalytic activity with a low overpotential of 44 mV (at 10 mA cm −2 ) for HER.