Surface functional groups in two dimensional (2-D) transition-metal carbides can undergo versatile chemical transformations to facilitate a broad class of MXene materials. In a new report on Science, Vladislav Kamysbayev, and a team of scientists in chemistry, physics and nanoscale materials at the James Franck Institute, the University of Chicago and the Argonne National Laboratory in the U.S. introduced a general strategy to synthesize MXenes. Using the method, they installed and removed surface groups via substitution and elimination reactions within molten inorganic salts. The team successfully synthesized MXenes with oxygen (O), imidogen (NH), sulfur (S), chlorine (Cl), selenium (Se), bromide (Br) and tellurium (Te) surface terminations. They also designed and developed bare MXenes without surface terminations and with distinctive structures and electronic properties. The surface groups could also control the interatomic distances in the MXene lattice to exhibit surface group-dependent superconductivity.
Click here for original story, A new strategy to synthesize 2-D inorganic materials used in capacitors, batteries, and composites
Source: Phys.org