LAUSR

Efficient catalysis of the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) greatly determines the widespread implementation of direct methanol fuel cells. Exploring suitable support for noble metal catalysts with a view to decreasing the mass loading and optimizing MOR activity remains a key challenge. Herein, we achieve an over 60% activity enhancement of a palladium (Pd) catalyst by introducing a two-dimensional Ti3C2Tx MXene as support compared to commercial Pd/C catalyst. Not only are more catalytically active Pd sites exposed on the Pd/MXene catalyst whilst maintaining a low mass loading, but the introduction of the MXene support also significantly alters the surface electronic structure of Pd. Specifically, spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) computations indicate that sufficiently electronegative terminations of Ti3C2Tx MXene surface can induce strong metal-support interactions (SMSI) with the Pd catalyst, leading to optimal methanol adsorption. This MXene-supported Pd catalyst exhibits a much higher MOR current density (12.4 mA cm-2) than that of commercial Pd/C (7.6 mA cm-2). Our work largely optimizes the intrinsic activity of a Pd catalyst by the utilization of MXene surface terminations and the crucial SMSI effects revealed herein opens a rational avenue to the design of more efficient noble metal catalysts for MOR.