Nano-Micro Letters ›› 2024, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (1): 94-. doi: 10.1007/s40820-023-01302-3

• ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Versatile MXene Gels Assisted by Brief and Low-Strength Centrifugation

Weiyan Yu1,2, Yi Yang1,2, Yunjing Wang2, Lulin Hu1,2, Jingcheng Hao2,3(), Lu Xu1,2(), Weimin Liu1,2   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Solid Lubrication, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, People’s Republic of China
    2 Shandong Laboratory of Advanced Materials and Green Manufacturing at Yantai, Yantai, 264006, People’s Republic of China
    3 Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry and Key Laboratory of Special Aggregated Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China
  • Received:2023-08-14 Accepted:2023-11-25 Online:2024-01-01 Published:2024-01-22
  • Contact: Jingcheng Hao, Lu Xu

Abstract:

Due to the mutual repulsion between their hydrophilic surface terminations and the high surface energy facilitating their random restacking, 2D MXene nanosheets usually cannot self-assemble into 3D macroscopic gels with various applications in the absence of proper linking agents. In this work, a rapid spontaneous gelation of Ti3C2Tx MXene with a very low dispersion concentration of 0.5 mg mL−1 into multifunctional architectures under moderate centrifugation is illustrated. The as-prepared MXene gels exhibit reconfigurable internal structures and tunable rheological, tribological, electrochemical, infrared-emissive and photothermal-conversion properties based on the pH-induced changes in the surface chemistry of Ti3C2Tx nanosheets. By adopting a gel with optimized pH value, high lubrication, exceptional specific capacitances (~ 635 and ~ 408 F g−1 at 5 and 100 mV s−1, respectively), long-term capacitance retention (~ 96.7% after 10,000 cycles) and high-precision screen- or extrusion-printing into different high-resolution anticounterfeiting patterns can be achieved, thus displaying extensive potential applications in the fields of semi-solid lubrication, controllable devices, supercapacitors, information encryption and infrared camouflaging.

Key words: MXene, Centrifugation-assisted rapid gelation, Lubrication, Supercapacitor, Anti-counterfeiting applications