The present study is concerned with the use of binders and solvents in fabricating MXene electrodes, which play a vital role in influencing supercapacitive performance. The electrodes were prepared by screen printing MXene on flexible stainless steel mesh (FSSM) substrate, which is a straightforward, efficient, and cost-effective approach. The influence of binder and solvent on the electrochemical performance was investigated by fabricating them with and without using a binder i.e. only organic solvents ethanol and n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). The electrode with the binder is abbreviated as MX-B@FSSM and was prepared with the composition of acetylene black conducting material, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer binder, and MXene (MX) as active material. While electrodes without binder were prepared by a slurry of MXene using organic solvent ethanol and NMP and are abbreviated as MX-E@FSSM and MX-N@FSSM, respectively. The electrochemical performance of these MX-B@FSSM, MX-E@FSSM and MX-N@FSSM electrodes was examined by cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The influence of the binder altered the electrochemical performance. The samples MX-B@FSSM, MX-E@FSSM, and MX-N@FSSM show the specific capacitance of 35.60, 490.80, and 339.6 F g-1, respectively at 2 mA cm-2current density. The MX-E@FSSM electrode exhibited marginally the best electrochemical performance. Furthermore, MnO2/MXene//MX-E asymmetric supercapacitor device exhibits 252 F g-1specific capacitance at 35.2 Wh kg-1energy density demonstrating a promising electrode for the supercapacitor.
Keywords: MXenes; binder; energy storage; solvents; two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials.
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