Additive‐free, single step formulations of MXene‐in‐water inks are developed from clay‐like titanium carbide (Ti3C2) sediments. Solution‐processable Ti3C2 inks are compatible with stamping, printing, painting, and writing on a variety of substrates. Specifically, MXene‐in‐water inks at higher concentrations of 30 mg mL−1 are employed in commercially available pens for dispensing and patterning 2D MXene directly. These MXene pens are employed either manually or automatically using an AxiDraw, enabling direct‐writing and complex patterning of functional MXene devices. Versatile MXene pens show compatible writing on a variety of substrates, including paper and polymers, where the deposited ink is used as a passive circuit, similar to silver and copper nanoparticle inks. Written MXene lines without additional post‐treatment exhibit length dependent resistance, showing typical resistivity values between carbon based and metal nanoparticle inks. Current collector‐free fabrication of MXene micro‐supercapacitors is demonstrated on unconventional platforms including paper, textiles, and curved surfaces directly.
A simple and generic strategy is proposed to pattern thin films deposited by a solution processable route. A soft approach based on an automated scalpel technique is developed to engrave thin films in a single step for sculpting functional planar devices. MXenes—the emerging family of 2D transition metal carbides and nitrides—combine metallic conductivity and hydrophilicity, enabling solution processing of transparent conducting electrodes (TCEs) under ambient conditions. Scalable dip coating is employed to process titanium carbide, Ti3C2, MXene thin films with excellent optoelectronic properties, achieving electrical Figure of merit up to 14. Automated scalpel engraving is adopted to fabricate transparent and semi‐transparent MXene microsupercapacitors in a single step, hitherto not reported. Combining TCE and pseudocapacitive characteristics, MXene devices show excellent capacitive storage capabilities at high rates, without the aid of external metal current collectors. This technique allows for maskless patterning of solution processed thin films without losing intrinsic physicochemical properties and can be extended to fabricate heterostructured hybrid devices out of solution processable materials.
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