skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Effects of Synthesis and Processing on Optoelectronic Properties of Titanium Carbonitride MXene

Journal Article · · Chemistry of Materials

MXenes, a relatively new class of two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal carbides, carbonitrides, and nitrides, exhibit unique properties such as high electronic conductivity, a wide range of optical characteristics, hydrophilicity, and mechanical stability. Because of the high electronic conductivity, MXenes have shown promise in many applications, such as energy storage, electromagnetic interference shielding, antennas, and transparent coatings. 2D titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx, where Tx represents surface terminations), the first discovered and most studied MXene, has the highest electronic conductivity exceeding 10 000 S cm–1. There have been several efforts to alter the conductivity of MXenes, such as manipulation of the transition-metal layer and control of surface terminations. However, the impact of the C and N site composition on electronic transport has not been explored. In this study, the effects of synthesis methods on optoelectronic properties of 2D titanium carbonitride, Ti3CNTx, were systematically investigated. We show that Ti3CNTx, which hosts a mix of carbon and nitrogen atoms in the X layer, has lower electronic conductivity and a blue shift of the main absorption feature within the UV–visible spectrum, compared to Ti3C2Tx. Moreover, intercalants such as water and tetraalkylammonium hydroxides decrease the electronic conductivity of MXene due to increased interflake resistance, leading to an increase in resistivity with decreasing temperature as observed in ensemble transport measurements. When the intercalants are removed, Ti3CNTx exhibits its intrinsic metallic behavior in good agreement with Hall measurements and transport properties measured on single-flake field-effect transistor devices. Finally, the dependence of conductivity of Ti3CNTx on the presence of intercalants opens wide opportunities for creating MXene-based materials with tunable electronic properties.

Research Organization:
Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0018618
OSTI ID:
1774175
Journal Information:
Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 31, Issue 8; ISSN 0897-4756
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 101 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (39)

Two-dimensional titanium carbonitrides and their hydroxylated derivatives: Structural, electronic properties and stability of MXenes Ti3C2−xNx(OH)2 from DFTB calculations journal November 2013
The Ca channel in skeletal muscle is a large pore. journal October 1985
Graphene on Mica - Intercalated Water Trapped for Life journal August 2014
Insights into the Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Mechanism on Two‐Dimensional Transition‐Metal Carbonitrides (MXene) journal June 2018
Intercalation and delamination of layered carbides and carbonitrides journal April 2013
Band structure of substoichiometric titanium nitrides and carbonitrides: spectroscopical and theoretical investigations journal October 1997
Electrical transport, thermal transport, and elastic properties of M 2 Al C ( M = Ti , Cr, Nb, and V) journal September 2005
Alkylammonium Cation Intercalation into Ti 3 C 2 (MXene): Effects on Properties and Ion-Exchange Capacity Estimation journal January 2017
Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Carbides journal January 2012
Control of electronic properties of 2D carbides (MXenes) by manipulating their transition metal layers journal January 2016
Metallic MXene Saturable Absorber for Femtosecond Mode-Locked Lasers journal July 2017
Fabrication of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene Transparent Thin Films with Tunable Optoelectronic Properties journal April 2016
Highly Conductive Optical Quality Solution-Processed Films of 2D Titanium Carbide journal April 2016
Rheological Characteristics of 2D Titanium Carbide (MXene) Dispersions: A Guide for Processing MXenes journal February 2018
Effect of Synthesis on Quality, Electronic Properties and Environmental Stability of Individual Monolayer Ti 3 C 2 MXene Flakes journal November 2016
Elastic properties of 2D Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene monolayers and bilayers journal June 2018
Control of MXenes’ electronic properties through termination and intercalation journal January 2019
Electronic and Optical Properties of 2D Transition Metal Carbides and Nitrides (MXenes) journal November 2018
Are There Fundamental Limitations on the Sheet Resistance and Transmittance of Thin Graphene Films? journal March 2010
Electronic, thermal, and elastic properties of Ti 3 Si 1 x Ge x C 2 solid solutions journal August 2004
Electromagnetic interference shielding with 2D transition metal carbides (MXenes) journal September 2016
Clay-Inspired MXene-Based Electrochemical Devices and Photo-Electrocatalyst: State-of-the-Art Progresses and Challenges journal January 2018
Guidelines for Synthesis and Processing of Two-Dimensional Titanium Carbide (Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene) journal September 2017
Environmental Friendly Scalable Production of Colloidal 2D Titanium Carbonitride MXene with Minimized Nanosheets Restacking for Excellent Cycle Life Lithium-Ion Batteries journal May 2017
Electronic and thermal properties of Ti[sub 3]Al(C[sub 0.5],N[sub 0.5])[sub 2], Ti[sub 2]Al(C[sub 0.5],N[sub 0.5]) and Ti[sub 2]AlN journal January 2008
Fluorine-Free Synthesis of High-Purity Ti 3 C 2 T x (T=OH, O) via Alkali Treatment journal April 2018
Atomic Defects in Monolayer Titanium Carbide (Ti 3 C 2 T x ) MXene journal September 2016
Two-dimensional atomic crystals journal July 2005
Electrical resistivity in the titanium carbonitride-zirconia system journal January 1992
Transparent Conductive Two-Dimensional Titanium Carbide Epitaxial Thin Films journal March 2014
Electronic properties and applications of MXenes: a theoretical review journal January 2017
Size-Dependent Physical and Electrochemical Properties of Two-Dimensional MXene Flakes journal June 2018
Electronic properties of freestanding Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene monolayers journal January 2016
Transparent, Flexible, and Conductive 2D Titanium Carbide (MXene) Films with High Volumetric Capacitance journal July 2017
Atomic-Scale Recognition of Surface Structure and Intercalation Mechanism of Ti 3 C 2 X journal February 2015
The 100th anniversary of the four-point probe technique: the role of probe geometries in isotropic and anisotropic systems journal May 2015
High capacitance of surface-modified 2D titanium carbide in acidic electrolyte journal November 2014
2D metal carbides and nitrides (MXenes) for energy storage journal January 2017
Ion-Exchange and Cation Solvation Reactions in Ti 3 C 2 MXene journal May 2016

Cited By (3)

Scalable Synthesis of Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene journal March 2020
MXene‐Based Dendrite‐Free Potassium Metal Batteries journal November 2019
Distinguishing electronic contributions of surface and sub-surface transition metal atoms in Ti-based MXenes journal February 2020