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Vol. 16 (2024)

Versatile MXene Gels Assisted by Brief and Low-Strength Centrifugation

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01302-3
Weiyan Yu
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China
Yi Yang
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China
Yunjing Wang
Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at Yantai, Yantai 264006, People’s Republic of China
Lulin Hu
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China
Jingcheng Hao
Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at Yantai, Yantai 264006, People’s Republic of China
Lu Xu
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China
Weimin Liu
State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Lu Xu

xulu@licp.cas.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 16 (2024), Article Number: 94

Abstract

Due to the mutual repulsion between their hydrophilic surface terminations and the high surface energy facilitating their random restacking, 2D MXene nanosheets usually cannot self-assemble into 3D macroscopic gels with various applications in the absence of proper linking agents. In this work, a rapid spontaneous gelation of Ti3C2Tx MXene with a very low dispersion concentration of 0.5 mg mL−1 into multifunctional architectures under moderate centrifugation is illustrated. The as-prepared MXene gels exhibit reconfigurable internal structures and tunable rheological, tribological, electrochemical, infrared-emissive and photothermal-conversion properties based on the pH-induced changes in the surface chemistry of Ti3C2Tx nanosheets. By adopting a gel with optimized pH value, high lubrication, exceptional specific capacitances (~ 635 and ~ 408 F g−1 at 5 and 100 mV s−1, respectively), long-term capacitance retention (~ 96.7% after 10,000 cycles) and high-precision screen- or extrusion-printing into different high-resolution anticounterfeiting patterns can be achieved, thus displaying extensive potential applications in the fields of semi-solid lubrication, controllable devices, supercapacitors, information encryption and infrared camouflaging.


Highlights:
1 A low-strength-centrifugation-assisted approach for rapid gelation of Ti3C2Tx MXene with a very low dispersion concentration into multifunctional 3D architectures is developed.
2 On the basis of pH-induced surface termination changes, the MXene gels exhibit reconfigurable internal structures and tunable rheological, tribological, electrochemical, infrared-emissive and photothermal-conversion properties.
3 By adopting a gel with optimized pH value, high lubrication, remarkable capacitance, long-term capacitance retention and high-precision screen- or extrusion-printing into high-resolution anticounterfeiting patterns can be achieved.

Keywords

MXene Centrifugation-assisted rapid gelation Lubrication Supercapacitor Anti-counterfeiting applications
Yu, Weiyan, Yi Yang, Yunjing Wang, Lulin Hu, Jingcheng Hao, Lu Xu, and Weimin Liu. 2024. “Versatile MXene Gels Assisted by Brief and Low-Strength Centrifugation”. Nano-Micro Letters 16 (January):94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01302-3.
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