Ascorbic acid-induced fiber-scrolling of titanium carbide Ti3C2T x MXene

Jinxin Cao; Yuru Wang; Bingqing Wei; Jiaxin Ye; Qing Zhang

doi:10.1039/d2ra03174d

Ascorbic acid-induced fiber-scrolling of titanium carbide Ti₃C₂T _x MXene

RSC Adv. 2022 Aug 3;12(33):21600-21608. doi: 10.1039/d2ra03174d. eCollection 2022 Jul 21.

Authors

Jinxin Cao¹, Yuru Wang¹, Bingqing Wei², Jiaxin Ye³, Qing Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University Hefei 230039 Anhui China zhangq@ahu.edu.cn.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware Newark Delaware 19716 USA.
³ School of Mechanical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology Hefei 230009 Anhui China.

Abstract

Changing the morphology of two-dimensional materials often offers an efficient and effective means to exploit their electronic and mechanical properties. Two-dimensional materials such as graphene can be scrolled into one-dimensional fibers via simple sonication. Unfortunately, scrolling MXene nanosheets into fibers is quite challenging, especially Ti₃C₂T _x composed of three layers of titanium atoms and two layers of carbon atoms. Herein, we report a new method to fabricate MXene fibers via ascorbic acid (AA) induced scrolling of Ti₃C₂T _x nanosheets. An unusual AA-Ti₃C₂T _x interaction is discovered in that intercalated AA molecules bind to and interact with the Ti₃C₂T _x surface in the form of a hydrogen bonding-bonded assembly instead of as individual molecules, and a sheet-scrolling mechanism is proposed based on this interaction. The as-obtained MXene fibers exhibit a compact cross-section, and the diameter can be tailored from hundreds of nanometers to several micrometers through tuning the MXene/AA ratio. Moreover, the storage modulus of the MXene-fiber sponge attains its maximum value of ∼1 MPa when a unique morphology comprising both fibers and not-yet-scrolled sheets is presented. This work offers a new strategy of fiber-shaping MXenes for applications in structural composites and flexible electronics.