High-Yield Exfoliated MXene Nanosheets through Vapor Energy-Driven Delamination

Abstract

MXene is a two-dimensional nanosheet material with a structure akin to graphene and has drawn considerable attention for its unique large-scale layer architecture, exceptional electrical conductivity, and hydrophilic properties. At present, ultrasonic oscillation is utilized to exfoliate and produce high-quality MXene nanosheets. Nonetheless, this technique can lead to the fracture of the lamellar structure, and the yield of high-quality MXene is only up to 10–20%. Hence, this study proposed a simple exfoliation strategy that uses the energy generated by water vapor to exfoliate bulk MXene into thin high-quality MXene nanosheets. The entire process is easy and environmentally friendly, accompanied by a yield of up to 73%. Also, after exfoliation, the obtained MXene nanosheets demonstrate an exceptional conductivity of 5824 S/cm. When used as a conductive additive incorporated into the LTO anode, it showed a high and stable reversible cycling capacity of 143 mAh g^–1 after 400 cycles. Our work not only delivers a straightforward and safe technique for the synthesis of high-quality MXene nanosheets but also provides a reference for its application in specific fields.