Intercalation and delamination of layered carbides and carbonitrides

Olha Mashtalir; Michael Naguib; Vadym N Mochalin; Yohan Dall'Agnese; Min Heon; Michel W Barsoum; Yury Gogotsi

doi:10.1038/ncomms2664

Intercalation and delamination of layered carbides and carbonitrides

Nat Commun. 2013:4:1716. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2664.

Authors

Olha Mashtalir¹, Michael Naguib, Vadym N Mochalin, Yohan Dall'Agnese, Min Heon, Michel W Barsoum, Yury Gogotsi

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.

PMID: 23591883
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2664

Abstract

Intercalation and delamination of two-dimensional solids in many cases is a requisite step for exploiting their unique properties. Herein we report on the intercalation of two-dimensional Ti3C2, Ti3CN and TiNbC-so called MXenes. Intercalation of hydrazine, and its co-intercalation with N,N-dimethylformamide, resulted in increases of the c-lattice parameters of surface functionalized f-Ti3C2, from 19.5 to 25.48 and 26.8 Å, respectively. Urea is also intercalated into f-Ti3C2. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that a hydrazine monolayer intercalates between f-Ti3C2 layers. Hydrazine is also intercalated into f-Ti3CN and f-TiNbC. When dimethyl sulphoxide is intercalated into f-Ti3C2, followed by sonication in water, the f-Ti3C2 is delaminated forming a stable colloidal solution that is in turn filtered to produce MXene 'paper'. The latter shows excellent Li-ion capacity at extremely high charging rates.