A Hybrid Assembly of MXene with NH2−Si Nanoparticles Boosting Lithium Storage Performance

Abstract

A facile hybrid assembly between Ti3 C2 Tx MXene nanosheets and (3-aminopropyl) triethoxylsilane-modified Si nanoparticles (NH2 -Si NPs) was developed to construct multilayer stacking of Ti3 C2 Tx nanosheets with NH2 -Si NPs assembling together (NH2 -Si/Ti3 C2 Tx ). NH2 -Si/Ti3 C2 Tx exhibits a significantly enhanced lithium storage performance compared to pristine Si, which is attributed to the robust crosslinking architecture and considerably improved electrical conductivity as well as shorter Li+ diffusion pathways. The optimized NH2 -Si/Ti3 C2 Tx anode with Ti3 C2 Tx : NH2 -Si mass ratio of 4 : 1 displays an enhanced capacity (864 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C) with robust capacity retention, which is significantly higher than those of NH2 -Si NPs and Ti3 C2 Tx anodes. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the important effect of the MXene-based electrode architecture on the electrochemical performance and can guide future work on designing high-performance Si/MXene hybrids for energy storage applications.