Sculpting Liquids with Two-Dimensional Materials: The Assembly of Ti3C2Tx MXene Sheets at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces

Jeffrey D Cain; Amin Azizi; Kathleen Maleski; Babak Anasori; Emily C Glazer; Paul Y Kim; Yury Gogotsi; Brett A Helms; Thomas P Russell; Alex Zettl

doi:10.1021/acsnano.9b05088

Sculpting Liquids with Two-Dimensional Materials: The Assembly of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene Sheets at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces

ACS Nano. 2019 Nov 26;13(11):12385-12392. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.9b05088. Epub 2019 Oct 11.

Authors

Jeffrey D Cain^{1

2

3}, Amin Azizi^{1

3}, Kathleen Maleski^{4

5}, Babak Anasori^{4

5

6}, Emily C Glazer^{1

2

3}, Paul Y Kim², Yury Gogotsi^{4

5}, Brett A Helms^{2

7}, Thomas P Russell^{2

8

9}, Alex Zettl^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics , University of California at Berkeley , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States.
² Materials Sciences Division , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States.
³ Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States.
⁴ Department of Materials Science & Engineering , Drexel University , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania 19104 , United States.
⁵ A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute , Drexel University , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania 19104 , United States.
⁶ Integrated Nanosystems Development Institute, Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology , Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis , Indianapolis , Indiana 46202 , United States.
⁷ The Molecular Foundry , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , Berkeley , California 94720 , United States.
⁸ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering , University of Massachusetts Amherst , Amherst , Massachusetts 01003 , United States.
⁹ Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering , Beijing University of Chemical Technology , Beijing 100029 , China.

PMID: 31593435
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b05088

Abstract

The self-assembly of nanoscale materials at the liquid-liquid interface allows for fabrication of three-dimensionally structured liquids with nearly arbitrary geometries and tailored electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Two-dimensional (2D) materials are highly anisotropic, with thicknesses on the order of a nanometer and lateral dimensions upward of hundreds of nanometers to micrometers. Controlling the assembly of these materials has direct implications for their properties and performance. We here describe the interfacial assembly and jamming of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene nanosheets at the oil-water interface. Planar, as well as complex, programmed three-dimensional all-liquid objects are realized. Our approach presents potential for the creation of all-liquid 3D-printed devices for possible applications in all-liquid electrochemical and energy storage devices and electrically active, all-liquid fluidics that exploits the versatile structure, functionality, and reconfigurability of liquids.

Keywords: 2D materials; MXenes; liquid−liquid interfaces; self-assembly; structured liquids.