A Hybrid Assembly of MXene with NH₂ -Si Nanoparticles Boosting Lithium Storage Performance

A facile hybrid assembly between Ti₃ C₂ T_x MXene nanosheets and (3-aminopropyl) triethoxylsilane-modified Si nanoparticles (NH₂ -Si NPs) was developed to construct multilayer stacking of Ti₃ C₂ T_x nanosheets with NH₂ -Si NPs assembling together (NH₂ -Si/Ti₃ C₂ T_x ). NH₂ -Si/Ti₃ C₂ T_x exhibits a significantly enhanced lithium storage performance compared to pristine Si, which is attributed to the robust crosslinking architecture and considerably improved electrical conductivity as well as shorter Li⁺ diffusion pathways. The optimized NH₂ -Si/Ti₃ C₂ T_x anode with Ti₃ C₂ T_x : NH₂ -Si mass ratio of 4 : 1 displays an enhanced capacity (864 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 C) with robust capacity retention, which is significantly higher than those of NH₂ -Si NPs and Ti₃ C₂ T_x anodes. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the important effect of the MXene-based electrode architecture on the electrochemical performance and can guide future work on designing high-performance Si/MXene hybrids for energy storage applications.