One-Step Radical-Intensified Selective Etching (RISE) Strategy for High-Yield Synthesis of Monolayer MXene with...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Chemistry

Background:

• MXenes possess unique properties like high conductivity and hydrophilicity.
• Current synthesis methods struggle with rapid, high-yield production of monolayer MXenes with controlled structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an ultrafast, mild synthesis method for monolayer MXenes.
• To achieve controllable in-plane nanostructures in MXenes.
• To enable scalable production of MXene dispersions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an ultrafast radical-intensified selective etching (RISE) tactic.
• Employed fine-tuning of H2O2 dosage to generate hydroxyl radicals (·OH) for etching.
• Investigated mechanistic pathways via radical-driven redox reactions.

Main Results:

• Achieved near-quantitative etching efficiency (∼99.9%) for monolayer Ti3C2Tx MXene in 3 hours.
• Produced defect-lean monolayer MXene in a high yield of 81.6%.
• Demonstrated scalable production of liters of colloidal MXene dispersion.
• Developed holey MXene films with exceptional desalination capacity (32.71 mg g⁻¹).

Conclusions:

• The RISE method offers a revolutionary alternative to traditional MXene synthesis.
• This approach enables customizable MXene architectures for energy and environmental solutions.
• The synthesized MXenes exhibit enhanced performance in applications like capacitive deionization.