Laser-sculptured ultrathin transition metal carbide layers for energy storage and energy harvesting applications

Xining Zang; Cuiying Jian; Taishan Zhu; Zheng Fan; Wanlin Wang; Minsong Wei; Buxuan Li; Mateo Follmar Diaz; Paul Ashby; Zhengmao Lu; Yao Chu; Zizhao Wang; Xinrui Ding; Yingxi Xie; Juhong Chen; J Nathan Hohman; Mohan Sanghadasa; Jeffrey C Grossman; Liwei Lin

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10999-z

Laser-sculptured ultrathin transition metal carbide layers for energy storage and energy harvesting applications

Nat Commun. 2019 Jul 15;10(1):3112. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-10999-z.

Authors

Xining Zang^{1

2}, Cuiying Jian³, Taishan Zhu³, Zheng Fan⁴, Wanlin Wang⁵, Minsong Wei⁶, Buxuan Li⁶, Mateo Follmar Diaz⁷, Paul Ashby⁸, Zhengmao Lu³, Yao Chu⁶, Zizhao Wang⁹, Xinrui Ding⁶, Yingxi Xie⁶, Juhong Chen⁶, J Nathan Hohman⁸, Mohan Sanghadasa¹⁰, Jeffrey C Grossman¹¹, Liwei Lin¹²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. xzang@mit.edu.
² Mechanical Engineering & Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California Berkley, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA. xzang@mit.edu.
³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
⁴ Department of Engineering Technology, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204, USA.
⁵ College of Electronic Science and Technology, Shenzhen University, 518060, Shenzhen, China.
⁶ Mechanical Engineering & Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California Berkley, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA.
⁷ Micro and Nanosystems, D-MAVT, ETHZ, Zürich, CH - 8092, Switzerland.
⁸ Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
⁹ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
¹⁰ Aviation and Missile Center, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Redstone Arsenal, AL, 35898, USA.
¹¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA. jcg@mit.edu.
¹² Mechanical Engineering & Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California Berkley, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA. lwlin@berkeley.edu.

Abstract

Ultrathin transition metal carbides with high capacity, high surface area, and high conductivity are a promising family of materials for applications from energy storage to catalysis. However, large-scale, cost-effective, and precursor-free methods to prepare ultrathin carbides are lacking. Here, we demonstrate a direct pattern method to manufacture ultrathin carbides (MoC_x, WC_x, and CoC_x) on versatile substrates using a CO₂ laser. The laser-sculptured polycrystalline carbides (macroporous, ~10-20 nm wall thickness, ~10 nm crystallinity) show high energy storage capability, hierarchical porous structure, and higher thermal resilience than MXenes and other laser-ablated carbon materials. A flexible supercapacitor made of MoC_x demonstrates a wide temperature range (-50 to 300 °C). Furthermore, the sculptured microstructures endow the carbide network with enhanced visible light absorption, providing high solar energy harvesting efficiency (~72 %) for steam generation. The laser-based, scalable, resilient, and low-cost manufacturing process presents an approach for construction of carbides and their subsequent applications.