2022/07/02 by Rabia Tahir, Syedah Afsheen Zahra, Tahir, Rabia +5
Engineering · Materials Science · #2D Materials and Applications #Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials #FOS: Physical sciences #MXene and MAX Phase Materials #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2207.00893
openalex publication_date 2022/07/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Two-dimensional (2D) multiferroics are key candidate materials towards advancement of smart technology. Here, we employed a simple synthesis approach to address the long-awaited dream of developing ferroelectric and multiferroic 2D materials, specially in the new class of materials called MXenes. The etched Ti3C2Tx MXene was first synthesized after HF-treatment followed by delamination process for successful synthesis of free-standing Ti3C2Tx film. The free-standing film was then exposed to air at room-temperature as well as heated at different temperature to form TiO2 layer derived from the Ti3C2Tx MXene itself. TiO2 is reported to be an incipient ferroelectric that assumes a ferroelectric phase in composite form. The structural and morphological analysis confirmed successful synthesis of free-standing film and the Raman spectroscopy revealed the formation of different phases of TiO2. The ferroelectric measurement showed a clear polarization hysteresis loop at room-temperature. Also, the magnetic hysteresis was observed in the film indicating a possibility of coupling between ferroelectric and ferromagnetic phases at room-temperature. The magnetoelectric coupling test was also performed that showed a clear, switchable spontaneous polarization under applied magnetic field. This is the first report on existence of ferroelectric phase and multiferroic coupling in 2D free-standing MXene film at room-temperature which opens-up possibility of 2D materials-based electric and magnetic data storage applications at room-temperature.