Abstract
The practical application of 2D MXenes in electronic and energy fields has been hindered by the severe variation in the quality of MXene products depending on the parent MAX phases, manufacturing techniques, and preparation parameters. In particular, their synthesis has been impeded by the lack of studies reporting the synthesis of high-quality parent MAX phases. In addition, controllable and uniform deposition of 2D MXenes on various large-scale substrates is urgently required to use them practically. Herein, a method of pelletizing raw materials could synthesize a stoichiometric Ti3AlC2 MAX phase with high yield and processability, and fewer impurities. The Ti3AlC2 could be exfoliated into 1–2-atom-thick 2D Ti3C2Tx flakes, and their applicability was confirmed by the deposition and additional alignment of the 2D flakes with tunable thickness and electrical properties. Moreover, a practical MXene ink was fabricated with rheological characterization. MXene ink exhibited much better thickness uniformity while retaining excellent electrical performances (e.g., sheet resistance, electromagnetic interference shielding ability) as those of a film produced by vacuum filtration. The direct functional integration of MXenes on various substrates is expected to initiate new and unexpected MXene-based applications.
Highlights
The past few years have witnessed signi cant development in two-dimensional (2D) MXene research (i.e., a large group of transition metal (TM) carbides or nitrides) as a new material for various applications owing to its combination of unique properties and 2D layered claylike structure.[1,2,3] It is produced by the selective etching of A layers from their parent MAX phase, where M is an early TM, A is generally an element of group IIIA or IVA, and X is carbon and/or nitrogen.[4]
A titanium aluminum carbide (Ti3AlC2) MAX phase was successfully synthesized using a new pelletizing method that we developed in this study (Fig. S1†)
As the sintering temperature increased to z1450 C, the Ti3AlC2 phase increased to 86.6 vol% with TiC being reduced to 13.4 vol%, which indicates that a greater amount of Ti–Al reacted with TiC to produce an interleaved Al layer forming Ti3AlC2
Summary
The past few years have witnessed signi cant development in two-dimensional (2D) MXene research (i.e., a large group of transition metal (TM) carbides or nitrides) as a new material for various applications owing to its combination of unique properties and 2D layered claylike structure.[1,2,3] It is produced by the selective etching of A layers from their parent MAX phase (i.e., precursor), where M is an early TM, A is generally an element of group IIIA or IVA (i.e., group 13 or 14), and X is carbon and/or nitrogen.[4]. As a method to utilize MXene obtained from the precursor MAX phase, developments of viscous aqueous inks have been reported.[29,30,31] MXene inks, which were made of MXene akes and had hydrophilicity and a high surface charge, could be applied on a variety of substrates using affordable strategies such as writing, printing, stamping, and painting. MXene inks reported to date are rarely composed of only delaminated-MXene akes (i.e., frequent presence of bulky structure in deposited akes), and the lms made from the inks do not exhibit laterally stacked morphologies.[29,30,31] The uneven stacking of MXene akes could lead to a reduction in conductivity, and the applications of the lms are limited to electrical circuits or electrodes for energy storage devices. Formulating an MXene ink with ideal viscoelastic properties, which would allow the 2D akes to be deposited more uniformly and laterally, is highly necessary at this moment
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