The secret to the perfect croissant is in the layers – as much as possible, each one is covered with butter. In the same way, promising new materials for new applications are those that contain many precious metals, among which scientists can absorb different ions for different purposes. This makes them potentially useful for future advanced electronics or energy storage, A simple way to create metal layers is important for new technologies.
Until recently, these things – known as MXenes, pronounced “max-eens” – worked as hard as real croissants made in French bakeries.
But new progress from scientists at the University of Chicago shows how to make these MXenes quickly and easily, with minimal toxic effects.
The researchers hope that this discovery, published today in Science, will stimulate innovation and open the way for the use of MXenes in electronics and everyday devices.
When it was discovered in 2011, MXenes caused excitement among many scientists. It usually happens when you forge a metal like gold or titanium to create a thin sheet, it stops being metal. But the incredibly strong chemical bond in MXenes allows them to retain unique mechanical properties, such as strong electrical conductivity.
They’re also easy to adjust: “You can place ions between layers to use them to store energy, for example,” says chemistry graduate student Di Wang, co-first author of the paper with postdoctoral researcher Chenkun Zhou. said.
All these advantages can make MXenes very useful for building new devices, such as storing electricity or preventing interference from electromagnetic waves.
However, the only way we know of to make MXenes involves several intensive chemical engineering processes, including heating the compound to 3000°F followed by a bath in hydrofluoric acid.
Dmitri Talapin, Ernest DeWitt explained, “It is good if you make a few grams for experiments in the laboratory, but if you want to make a large amount for a commercial product, it will be a big waste disposal problem, ” explained Dmitri Talapin, Ernest DeWitt. Burton Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Chicago, appointed to the Argonne National Laboratory and corresponding author.
To design a more efficient and less toxic process, the team used principles of chemistry, particularly the ‘atom economy‘, which aims to reduce the number of atoms lost in the reaction.
The UChicago team discovered a new chemical reaction that allows scientists to make MXenes from a simple, inexpensive starting point without using hydrofluoric acid. It has one step: mix as many chemicals as you want to create the grade, then heat the mixture to 1700°F., “Then you open it and they’re there,” Wang said.
A simple and non-toxic method opens new ways for scientists to create and analyze new types of MXenes for different applications, such as different metal alloys or different ionic flavors. The team tested the method on titanium and zirconium metals, but they believe the method can be used for many other different combinations.
“These new MXenes are also beautiful to the eye,” added Wang. “They rise like flowers, which can make them more suitable for reactions because their parts are exposed to the mineral ions and molecules that move between the metal layers.”
Source: University of Chicago.
