Tailoring Ti3CNTx MXene via an acid molecular scissor

MXenes are attracting growing attentions from scientific community owing to their decent electric and ionic conductivity, highly accessible surface area, and the presence of redox-active sites. Herein, an acid molecular scissor is proposed to artificially tailor Ti3CNTx MXene at the atomic scale and create defective nanosheets and redox-active sites. The tailored Ti3CNTx MXene exhibits a significantly improved electrochemical performance with the specific capacitance reaching 376 F g(-1) and 230.68 mF cm(-2), much higher than that of original Ti3CNTx MXene (237 F g(-1) and 168.27 mF cm(-2)). The tailored Ti3CNTx MXene was further assembled into a micro-supercapacitor, which demonstrates a high volumetric capacitance of 250 F cm(-3), a high energy density of 12.46 mW h cm(-3) at a power density of 0.43 W cm(-3). This work offers a new strategy to reinvent MXenes at the atomic scale with largely enhanced redox-active sites for energy storage, catalysis, solid lubricants and elec-tromagnetic interference shielding.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates the use of an acid molecular scissor to tailor Ti3CNTx MXene at the atomic scale, resulting in enhanced redox-active sites, improved specific capacitance, and electrochemical performance. The tailored Ti3CNTx MXene was further assembled into a micro-supercapacitor with high volumetric capacitance and energy density. This work offers a new strategy for enhancing MXenes for various applications including energy storage.