Maughan, P.A., Seymour, V.R., Bernardo-Gavito, R. et al. (8 more authors) (2020) Porous silica-pillared MXenes with controllable interlayer distances for long-life Na-ion batteries. Langmuir, 36 (16). pp. 4370-4382. ISSN 0743-7463
Abstract
MXenes are a recently discovered class of two-dimensional materials that have shown great potential as electrodes in electrochemical energy storage devices. Despite their promise in this area, MXenes can still suffer limitations in the form of restricted ion accessibility between the closely spaced multistacked MXene layers, causing low capacities and poor cycle life. Pillaring, a strategy where a secondary species is inserted between layers, has been used to increase interlayer spacings in clays with great success, but has had limited application in MXenes. We report a new amine-assisted pillaring methodology that successfully intercalates silica-based pillars between Ti3C2 layers. Using this technique, the interlayer spacing can be controlled with the choice of amine and calcination temperature, up to a maximum of 3.2 nm, the largest interlayer spacing reported for an MXene. Another effect of the pillaring is a dramatic increase in surface area, achieving BET surface areas of 235 m2 g-1, a sixty-fold increase over the unpillared material and the highest reported for MXenes using an intercalation-based method. The intercalation mechanism was revealed by different characterisation techniques, allowing the surface chemistry to be optimised for the pillaring process. The porous MXene was tested for Na-ion battery applications, and showed superior capacity, rate capability and remarkable stability compared with non-pillared materials, retaining 98.5% capacity between the 50th and 100th cycles. These results demonstrate the applicability and promise of pillaring techniques applied to MXenes, providing a new approach to optimising their properties for a range of applications. Porous MXenes are very promising materials for a range of applications including energy storage, conversion, catalysis and gas separations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 American Chemical Society. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License, (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_ccby_termsofuse.html) which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Chemistry (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 15 Apr 2020 14:56 |
Last Modified: | 24 Nov 2021 17:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Chemical Society (ACS) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c00462 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:159527 |