Scalable, High-Yield Monolayer MXene Preparation from Multilayer MXene for Many Applications.

Abstract

MXene (Ti3C2Tx) is renowned for its exceptional conductivity and hydrophilicity;however,the low yield of monolayers hinders its industrial scalability. Herein, wepresent a strategy to substantially enhance the monolayer yield by disrupting thehydrogen-bonding cage confinement of multilayer MXene using high-temperature ultrasound,challengingthe conventional belief that monolayer MXene can only be prepared at lower temperatures. At approximately70 °C, the weakened hydrogen bondingbetween the oxygen-containing terminal groups of multilayer MXene and surrounding water molecules weakensthe hydrogen-bond cage confinement. Thisenables ultrasonic cavitation to generate more microbubbles thatpenetrate the interlayers of multilayer MXene,resultingin gentle and thorough delamination into larger monolayer nanosheets.Achieving up to a 95%yield in just tens ofminutes,these nanosheets exhibit properties comparableto those producedbytraditional ice-bath methods. Furthermore, the high-concentration MXene ink produced on a large scale using this high-yield approachexhibits excellent printing and processingcapabilities, and the correspondingproducts showcase superior infrared stealth and Joule heating characteristics. This work addresses a keytechnical bottleneck inMXene production, paving the way for its extensive technological and industrial applications.