Ti₃C₂ MXene-Coated Germanium Nanoparticles on Nickel Foam for Binder-Free Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes

Germanium (Ge) is a promising high-capacity anode material for lithium-ion batteries; however, its practical application remains limited by substantial volume variation, unstable interfacial reactions, and rapid capacity degradation during repeated lithiation/delithiation. In this work, a binder-free Ge/C/MXene@NF hybrid electrode was developed through a sequential fabrication process, where Ge nanoparticles were immobilized within a PVP-derived carbon matrix supported on a three-dimensional nickel-foam scaffold and subsequently integrated with a Ti₃C₂T_x MXene conductive network to construct a hierarchical Ge/C/MXene hybrid architecture. The nickel foam provides a continuous current-collecting framework and mechanical support, while the MXene network improves electrical connectivity, electrolyte accessibility, and interfacial charge-transfer kinetics. Structural and compositional analyses further indicate the presence of PVP-derived carbon and a possible minor NiGe interfacial phase formed during annealing. Comparison with Ge@NF and the individual component electrodes provides insight into the respective contributions of MXene, Ge, and the PVP-derived carbon framework to the electrochemical behaviour of the composite electrode. Using the total deposited active-material mass as the normalisation basis, the MXene@Ge@NF electrode retains a reversible specific capacity of 789.8 mAh g^-1 after 100 cycles at an effective current density of 76.2 mA g^-1. The observed electrochemical behaviour originates from the integrated contributions of Ge nanoparticles, the PVP-derived carbon matrix, the conductive Ti₃C₂T_x MXene network, the three-dimensional nickel-foam scaffold, and possible Ni-Ge interfacial interactions. Rather than representing a Ge-dominated electrode, this architecture demonstrates the advantages of integrating multiple functional components within a binder-free Ge/C/MXene hybrid architecture.