"2D Carbides and Nitrides (MXenes) – from Discovery to Applications"
Discovery of new materials provides moments of inspiration and shifts in understanding, shaping the dynamic field of materials science. Following the discovery of 2D Ti3C2 in 2011 [1], 2D carbides, oxycarbides, carbonitrdes, and nitrides of transition metals known as MXenes [2] have greatly expanded the nanomaterials family. More than 50 different carbide and nitride MXenes have been reported, and the structure and properties of numerous other MXenes have been predicted. Moreover, the availability of solid solutions on M and X sites, multi-element high-entropy MXenes, control of surface terminations, and the discovery of out-of-plane ordered double-M o-MXenes (e.g., Mo2TiC2), as well as in-plane ordered i-MXenes (e.g., Mo4/3C) offer a potential for producing dozens of new distinct structures and an infinite number of solid solutions. Many of those materials offer unique and very useful properties. This presentation will describe the state of the art in manufacturing MXenes, their delamination into single-layer 2D flakes, and assembly into films, fibers, and 3D structures. The versatile chemistry of MXenes renders their properties tunable for a large variety of applications. In this talk, I show how the optical, electronic, and transport properties of MXenes can be controlled by tuning their chemical composition [3]. MXenes have already shown great promise in energy storage and conversion, water desalination, electromagnetic interference shielding, antennas, thermal management, catalysis, healthcare, etc.
