Surface Oxidation Modulates the Interfacial and Lateral Thermal Migration of MXene (Ti₃C₂T) Flakes

The thermal management of MXene (Ti₃C₂T) plays a crucial role in its performance during various emerging applications. However, it is unclear how the inevitable oxidation structure of Ti₃C₂T influences the thermal dissipation, which might hinder its long-term performance and even create thermal damage. Here we show the thermal migration of a Ti₃C₂T flake with surface oxidation in film and water by combining ultrafast pump-probe technique with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results demonstrate that the oxidation at the surface could facilitate interfacial thermal migration with shorter interfacial distances but would block the lateral thermal transfer. Besides, our results also identified that the slight oxidation could not obviously change the thermal decay of Ti₃C₂T nanosheets in water due to similar hydrogen bonds between water and interface. The research not only provides fundamental understanding of the thermal dissipation of MXene but also benefits for designing the thermal dissipation system to the MXene device.