Two-Dimensional Tantalum Carbo-Selenide for Hydrogen Evolution

Herein, we report the synthesis of two-dimensional Ta2Se2C (2D-Ta2Se2C) nanosheets using electrochemical lithiation in multilayer Ta2Se2C followed by sonication in deionized water. Multilayer Ta2Se2C was obtained via solid-state synthesis of FexTa2Se2C followed by chemical etching of Fe. 2D-Ta2Se2C exhibited promising electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction from water compared to multilayer Ta2Se2C and 2D-TaSe2. 2D-Ta2Se2C showed an overpotential at 10 mA·cm–2 (η10) of 264 mV, a Tafel slope of 91 mV·dec–1, and an electrochemically active surface area of 17.61 mECSA2·gcatalyst–1. The high performance could be attributed to the large surface area of single sheets which hence maximizes the number of exposed catalytic sites and increased density of vacancies, observed with transmission electron microscopy, during synthesis and processing.