Recent Advances in Growth of Transition Metal Carbides and Nitrides (MXenes) Crystals

Abstract

As a novel family of 2D materials, MXenes have drawn intensive interests owing to its fascinating property profile. The ability to grow high‐quality MXenes in a controllable way would in turn further promote the development of fabrication techniques and expand wide advanced applications. Then 2D MXenes crystals are highly desirable and many approaches have been explored to realize the mass production. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) provides compelling benefits over other alternatives in controllability, uniformity and scalability. In this review, the recent advances in growth of MXenes crystals by CVD method will comprehensively present. Several typical kinds of MXenes crystals are demonstrated to be fabricated with a precise control in terms of size, morphology and thickness. Further, a series of MXenes heterostructures are constructed including vertical and lateral spatial orientations. Then, the properties and applications of MXenes crystals are exhibited, of which superconductivity and electrochemical catalysts will be mainly emphasized. Finally, the authors put forward views on the future development in the synthesis of MXenes. With continuous efforts devoted, a bright future of MXenes crystals prepared by CVD is expected.

Facile preparation of Ti3C2Tx sheets by selectively etching in a H2SO4/H2O2 mixture

“…More importantly, MXenes and MXene-based composite materials have potential applications in various fields such as energy storage ( Lukatskaya et al, 2013 ; Ghidiu et al, 2014 ; Liang et al, 2015 ; Wang et al, 2015 ; Luo et al, 2020 ; VahidMohammadi et al, 2021 ), flexible electronics ( Xu et al, 2021a ; Xu et al, 2021b ; Shi et al, 2022a ; Xu et al, 2022 ), electromagnetic shielding ( Shahzad et al, 2016 ; Iqbal et al, 2020 ), catalysis ( Seh et al, 2016 ; Liu et al, 2020 ), and water treatment ( Ren et al, 2015 ) due to their unique physical and chemical properties ( Halim et al, 2014 ; Dillon et al, 2016 ; Hantanasirisakul et al, 2016 ). In order to promote their potential applications, numerous research efforts have been carried out to explore the emerging etching methods and the stable storage of MXene, especially the large-scale preparing methods ( Naguib and Gogotsi, 2015 ; Alhabeb et al, 2017 ; Gogotsi and Anasori, 2019 ; Fan et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Since a new family of two-dimensional (2D) materials was first discovered in 2011 (Naguib et al, 2011), increasing attention has been paid to these novel 2D transition metal carbides, carbonitrides, and nitrides (named MXenes), and currently, more than 40 MXene compositions (Naguib et al, 2021) have been synthesized by different efficient routes (Naguib and Gogotsi, 2015;Alhabeb et al, 2017;Anasori et al, 2017;Tao et al, 2017;Zhou et al, 2017;Gogotsi and Anasori, 2019;Fan et al, 2022). The MAX phases are layered ternary carbides and nitrides with a general formula M n+1 AX n , where M represents transition metals (such as Sc, Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, etc.…”

Quantum Dots Compete at the Acme of MXene Family for the Optimal Catalysis

“…Generally, the synthesis of MQDs consists of two steps, including the chemical exfoliations of 2D MXenes from 3D bulk MAX for the first step, or the homogeneous 2D MXene can be obtained by bottom-up route such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) growth [ 91 , 92 ]. The next step is the preparation of MQDs mainly by top-down methods.…”

Re Modulation of Metallic Ultrathin 2M-WS2 for Highly Efficient Hydrogen Evolution in Both Acidic and Alkaline Media

“…With the increasingly serious problems of environmental pollution and energy shortage, it is very important to develop green and efficient renewable energy. − In order to seek sustainable and renewable energy, unremitting efforts have been made to develop practical energy conversion technologies. Hydrogen is considered as a clean and pollution-free energy with a high energy density (120 MJ kg –1 ), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is a promising carbon-free hydrogen production option among various advanced technologies. − Noble metal (Pt, Ir, and Ru)-based electrocatalysts and rare metallic oxides exhibited excellent HER performance. − However, the scarcity and high price limit their large-scale application. − Therefore, tremendous efforts have been contributed to searching for the non-noble metal electrocatalysts with aplenty and stable reserves, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). − In addition, to meet different application demands, development of electrocatalysts with excellent stability and high activity in varied pH has been actively pursued. − …”