Munir Sana, Rasheed Aamir, Rasheed Tabinda, Ayman Imtisal, Ajmal Sara, Rehman Abdul, Shakir Imran, Agboola Philips O, Warsi Muhammad Farooq
Department of Chemistry, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
Department of Chemistry, Government College University Faisalabad, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan.
ACS Omega. 2020 Oct 5;5(41):26845-26854. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c03970. eCollection 2020 Oct 20.
Recently, a new class of two-dimensional (2D) materials, called MXene, consisting of layers of transition-metal carbides and nitrides/carbonitrides has been introduced. MXene, a multifunctional material with hydrophilic nature and excellent electrical conductivity and chemical stabilities, can be applied in diverse research areas such as energy harvesting and its storage, water purification, thermal dissipation, and gas sensing. To achieve the best quality of MXene, optimization of some important synthetic parameters is highly required such as an optimized etchant concentration to remove an "A" element from the MAX phase and sonication time for the efficient exfoliation of MXene flakes. Besides, there is a need to disclose that particular solvent through which intercalation can easily be achieved. In this work, we optimized the abovementioned critical parameters for the synthesis of good-quality MXene. Our results clearly explain the variations in the quality of MXene under applied etchant concentrations, solvents for better intercalation, and optimization of sonication time for better exfoliation. The obtained results suggest that 30% HF as an etchant, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as a solvent, and 135 min as the sonication time are effective parameters for the synthesis of good-quality MXene. We expect that this report will be helpful for the young research community to synthesize good-quality MXene with the required properties.
最近，一类新型的二维（2D）材料——MXene被引入，它由过渡金属碳化物和氮化物/碳氮化物层组成。MXene是一种具有亲水性、优异导电性和化学稳定性的多功能材料，可应用于能量收集与存储、水净化、热耗散和气体传感等多个研究领域。为了获得最佳质量的MXene，高度需要优化一些重要的合成参数，例如用于从MAX相中去除“A”元素的优化蚀刻剂浓度以及用于MXene薄片高效剥离的超声处理时间。此外，需要公开一种能够轻松实现插层的特定溶剂。在这项工作中，我们优化了上述用于合成高质量MXene的关键参数。我们的结果清楚地解释了在应用蚀刻剂浓度、用于更好插层的溶剂以及用于更好剥离的超声处理时间优化条件下MXene质量的变化。所得结果表明，30%的氢氟酸作为蚀刻剂、二甲基亚砜（DMSO）作为溶剂以及135分钟作为超声处理时间是合成高质量MXene的有效参数。我们期望这份报告将有助于年轻的研究群体合成具有所需性能的高质量MXene。
