2019/01/16 by Jingyu Lu, Lu, J., Ingemar Persson +27
Materials Science · #2D Materials and Applications #FOS: Physical sciences #Graphene research and applications #MXene and MAX Phase Materials #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1901.05212
openalex publication_date 2019/01/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
MXenes are a rapidly growing family of 2D materials that exhibit a highly versatile structure and composition, allowing for significant tuning of the material properties. These properties are, however, ultimately limited by the surface terminations, which are typically a mixture of species, including F and O that are inherent to the MXene processing. Other and robust terminations are lacking. Here, we apply high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), corresponding image simulations and first-principles calculations to investigate the surface terminations on MXenes synthesized from MAX phases through Lewis acidic melts. The results show that atomic Cl terminates the synthesized MXenes, with mere residual presence of other termination species. Furthermore, in situ STEM-electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) heating experiments show that the Cl terminations are stable up to 750 °C. Thus, we present an attractive new termination that widely expands the MXenes functionalization space and enable new applications.