Synthesis of 2D-MXene-Ti3C2 by etching method from MAX-Ti3AlC2 in hydrogen fluoride solution

Abstract

Novel materials of two-dimensional material - MXene are transition metal carbides, nitrides or carbonitides, which have unique properties such as high Young’s modulus, thermal conductivity, high electrical conductivity, hydrophilic surface, high adsorption capacity, and ion-selective adsorption. These materials are receiving research attention for applications in energy storage, catalysis, sensing, electronics and environmental remediation. MXene materials were usually synthesised by three methods, including etching, top-down and bottom-up. In which, etching is a common method that is used widely to synthesise MXene materials. In this article, 2D-MXene-Ti₃C₂ materials were synthesised by etching method from MAX-Ti₃AlC₂ in HF solution. The effects of synthesis parameters such as temperature and time on the characteristics of the materials were investigated. The obtained results show that the concentration of HF 30%, the temperature of 35^oC and the time of 36 hours are suitable for synthesising 2D-MXene-Ti₃C₂ with good delamination. The Al elements were selected corrosion, which was confirmed by the results of energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectra with a decrease of 94.1% Al amount (from 24.08 to 1.43%).  Simultaneously, a layered structure was observed on the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of MXene materials.