Template-free 3D titanium carbide (Ti₃C₂T_x) MXene particles crumpled by capillary forces

Abstract

TiCT and other types of MXene nanosheets are an exciting new class of 2D materials. However, little has been reported on manipulating the shape of MXene nanosheets. Here, we demonstrate that flat TiCT nanosheets encapsulated within spray-dried droplets can be scrolled, bent, and folded into 3D crumpled structures. This morphological change was observed to be reversible upon rehydration.

High-Voltage Symmetric Supercapacitor Based on 2D Titanium Carbide (MXene, Ti2CTx)/Carbon Nanosphere Composites in a Neutral Aqueous Electrolyte

“…2 The C 1s core level was also successfully fitted using four Gaussian components (Figure 7c) located at 280.47 (12.38% of C 1s photoemission), 283.58 (74.25%), 285.44 (6.58%) and 287.5 eV (6.78%) corresponding to C-Ti, C-C, C-N, O-C = O bonds, respectively. The large amount of C-C and the O = C-O peaks may arise from hydrocarbons formed during the etching 80 remaining after washing or formed during oxidation. 6,24 The Ti 2p core level (Figure 7d) was fitted with five components which consist of two doublets (2p 3/2 and 2p 1/2 80,84,85 The Ti-C signal may be ascribed to Ti atoms coming from the interior and can also come from TiC 83 which was evidenced from the XRD results to be present as impurity in the original MAX phase material.…”

“…The large amount of C-C and the O = C-O peaks may arise from hydrocarbons formed during the etching 80 remaining after washing or formed during oxidation. 6,24 The Ti 2p core level (Figure 7d) was fitted with five components which consist of two doublets (2p 3/2 and 2p 1/2 80,84,85 The Ti-C signal may be ascribed to Ti atoms coming from the interior and can also come from TiC 83 which was evidenced from the XRD results to be present as impurity in the original MAX phase material. Ti signals with oxidation states 2+ and 3+ indicate the formation of different mixed oxides and carboxides on the MXene surface.…”

“…The results (Figure 7) demonstrate the co-existence of the main expected functional groups, namely, oxide (-O-), hydroxyl (-OH) and fluoride (-F). 80 The survey scan spectra (Figure 7a) show the expected core levels, namely, F 1s, O 1s, C 1s, Ti 2p for MXene, and O 1s, C 1s, Si 2p for CNS. Analysis of the spectra reveals the atomic percentage for each element.…”

“…The obtained values of the binding energy (BE) after deconvolution are comparable with previous studies. [80][81][82] For the MXene, the O 1s core level consists of three photoelectron peaks (Figure 7b). The lower BE, located at 529.38 eV, which comprises 57.59% of the photoemission in the O 1s core level is assigned to TiO 2 formed by oxidation of the MXene surface.…”

“…86 The results are in good agreement with the literature. [80][81][82][83][84][85] Indeed, the XPS results show the existence of the expected functional groups and oxidation of the surface and also prove that MXene is made up of mostly carbon. If we consider that the electrode was constructed with extra carbons (4% CNS and 15% carbon black), it can easily be inferred that the high-voltage operation of this supercapacitor may be partly related to the high carbon content.…”