Organic electrode materials have
shown potential for rechargeable
batteries because they are environmentally friendly, earth-abundant
sources, recyclable, high sustainable, designable, flexible, and lightweight.
However, low electrical conductivity and dissolution in organic liquid
electrolytes hinder their further development. Herein, MXene/organics
heterostructures are designed to address the problems of organic electrodes
via a scalable and simple electrostatic self-assembly strategy. Under
the effect of the electrostatic interaction, organic cathode material,
3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA), is tightly attached
to MXene nanosheets. Owing to the high electronic conductivity and
special two-dimensional (2D) structure of MXene nanosheets, the issues
of PTCDA cathode are effectively relieved. When applied in lithium-ion
batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), the MXene@PTCDA
heterostructure exhibits significantly enhanced rate capability and
cycling performance than bare PTCDA. The heterostructures proposed
here can be applied to other (K, Zn, Al, Mg, Ca, etc.) battery systems.
In addition to energy storage and conversion, the heterostructures
can be also extended to many fields such as catalysis, sensors, electronics,
optics, membranes, semiconductors, biomedicines, etc.