Study on Structural, Electronic, Optical and Mechanical Properties of MAX Phase Compounds and Applications Review Article

Abstract

The term “MAX phase” refers to a very interesting and important class of layered ternary transition-metal carbides and nitrides with a novel combination of both metal and ceramic-like properties that have made these materials highly regarded candidates for numerous technological and engineering applications. A relatively new class of transition metal layered compounds Mn+1AXn, (MAX phases) where M is an early transition metal, A is a group A element most likely Al, and X is C or N with n = 1, 2, 3………..Due to their unique structural arrangements and directional bonding, these ternary compounds possess some very outstanding mechanical and chemical properties such as damage-resistance, oxidation resistance, excellent thermal and electric conductivity, machinability, and fully reversible dislocation-based deformation. These properties can be explored in the search for new phases and their composites to meet the performance goals of advanced materials with applications in fossil energy conversion technology. Systematic and detailed computational studies on MAX phase compounds can provide fundamental understanding of the key characteristics that lead to these desirable properties and to the discovery of other new and better alloys.In this paper, we review on structural, electronic, optical and mechanical properties of around 50 MAX phase compounds and their applications. From the comparative study on the result of these compounds we think that this paper will enable to researcher to explore and predict new MAX phases and new composite alloys with better physical properties as advanced materials for various applications at extreme conditions.