MXene Printing and Patterned Coating for Device Applications

As a thriving member of the 2D nanomaterials family, MXenes, i.e., transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, exhibit outstanding electrochemical, electronic, optical, and mechanical properties. They have been exploited in many applications including energy storage, electronics, optoelectronics, biomedicine, sensors, and catalysis. Compared to other 2D materials, MXenes possess a unique set of properties such as high metallic conductivity, excellent dispersion quality, negative surface charge, and hydrophilicity, making them particularly suitable as inks for printing applications. Printing and pre/post-patterned coating methods represent a whole range of simple, economically efficient, versatile, and eco-friendly manufacturing techniques for devices based on MXenes. Moreover, printing can allow for complex 3D architectures and multifunctionality that are highly required in various applications. By means of printing and patterned coating, the performance and application range of MXenes can be dramatically increased through careful patterning in three dimensions; thus, printing/coating is not only a device fabrication tool but also an enabling tool for new applications as well as for industrialization

Metal Halide Perovskite and Phosphorus Doped g-C<inf>3</inf>N<inf>4</inf> Bulk Heterojunctions for Air-Stable Photodetectors

In this work, we fabricate photodetectors made of methylammonium lead trihalide perovskite (MLHP) and phosphorus-doped graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets (PCN-S). Using thermal polymerization, PCN-S with a reduced band gap, are synthesized from low-cost precursors, making it feasible to form type-II bulk heterojunctions with perovskites. Owing to the bulk heterojunctions between PCN-S and MLHP, the dark current of the photodetectors significantly decreases from ∼10-9 A for perovskite-only devices to ∼10-11 A for heterojunction devices. As a result, not only does the on/off ratio of the hybrid devices increase from 103 to 105 but also the photodetectivity is enhanced by more than 1 order of magnitude (up to 1013 Jones) and the responsivity reaches a value of 14 A W-1. Moreover, the hybridization of MLHP with PCN-S significantly modifies the hydrophilicity and morphology of the perovskite films, which dramatically increases their stability under ambient conditions. The hybrid photodetectors, described here, present a promising new direction toward stable and efficient optoelectronic applications

MXene Printing and Patterned Coating for Device Applications

As a thriving member of the 2D nanomaterials family, MXenes, i.e., transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, exhibit outstanding electrochemical, electronic, optical, and mechanical properties. They have been exploited in many applications including energy storage, electronics, optoelectronics, biomedicine, sensors, and catalysis. Compared to other 2D materials, MXenes possess a unique set of properties such as high metallic conductivity, excellent dispersion quality, negative surface charge, and hydrophilicity, making them particularly suitable as inks for printing applications. Printing and pre/post-patterned coating methods represent a whole range of simple, economically efficient, versatile, and eco-friendly manufacturing techniques for devices based on MXenes. Moreover, printing can allow for complex 3D architectures and multifunctionality that are highly required in various applications. By means of printing and patterned coating, the performance and application range of MXenes can be dramatically increased through careful patterning in three dimensions; thus, printing/coating is not only a device fabrication tool but also an enabling tool for new applications as well as for industrialization

MXene Printing and Patterned Coating for Device Applications

As a thriving member of the 2D nanomaterials family, MXenes, i.e., transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, exhibit outstanding electrochemical, electronic, optical, and mechanical properties. They have been exploited in many applications including energy storage, electronics, optoelectronics, biomedicine, sensors, and catalysis. Compared to other 2D materials, MXenes possess a unique set of properties such as high metallic conductivity, excellent dispersion quality, negative surface charge, and hydrophilicity, making them particularly suitable as inks for printing applications. Printing and pre/post-patterned coating methods represent a whole range of simple, economically efficient, versatile, and eco-friendly manufacturing techniques for devices based on MXenes. Moreover, printing can allow for complex 3D architectures and multifunctionality that are highly required in various applications. By means of printing and patterned coating, the performance and application range of MXenes can be dramatically increased through careful patterning in three dimensions; thus, printing/coating is not only a device fabrication tool but also an enabling tool for new applications as well as for industrialization

MXene hydrogels: Fundamentals and applications

Hydrogels have recently garnered tremendous interest due to their potential application in soft electronics, human-machine interfaces, sensors, actuators, and flexible energy storage. Benefiting from their impressive combination of hydrophilicity, metallic conductivity, high aspect ratio morphology, and widely tuneable properties, when two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXenes) are incorporated into hydrogel systems, they offer exciting and versatile platforms for the design of MXene-based soft materials with tunable application-specific properties. The intriguing and, in some cases, unique properties of MXene hydrogels are governed by complex gel structures and gelation mechanisms, which require in-depth investigation and engineering at the nanoscale. On the other hand, the formulation of MXenes into hydrogels can significantly increase the stability of MXenes, which is often the limiting factor for many MXene-based applications. Moreover, through simple treatments, derivatives of MXene hydrogels, such as aerogels, can be obtained, further expanding their versatility. This tutorial review intends to show the enormous potential of MXene hydrogels in expanding the application range of both hydrogels and MXenes, as well as increasing the performance of MXene-based devices. We elucidate the existing structures of various MXene-containing hydrogel systems along with their gelation mechanisms and the interconnecting driving forces. We then discuss their distinctive properties stemming from the integration of MXenes into hydrogels, which have revealed an enhanced performance, compared to either MXenes or hydrogels alone, in many applications (energy storage/harvesting, biomedicine, catalysis, electromagnetic interference shielding, and sensing)

MAPbI<inf>3</inf> Single Crystals Free from Hole-Trapping Centers for Enhanced Photodetectivity

Perovskite single crystals (PSCs) are considered the next breakthrough in optoelectronics research due to their free-grain boundary and much lower density of trap states compared to those of their polycrystalline counterparts. However, the inevitable formation of triiodide-based intrinsic defects during high-temperature crystal growth is one of the major challenges impeding the further development of optoelectronic devices based on PSCs. Here, we not only identified the existence of these triiodide ions as hole-trapping centers and their tremendous negative impact on the performance of PSCs, but more importantly, we used a reduction treatment to prevent their formation during crystal growth. The removal of such defect centers resulted in much higher charge carrier mobility and longer carrier lifetime than the untreated counterparts, leading to enhanced photodetection properties. The I3-free MAPbI3 single crystal (MSC) devices consistently generated a more than 100 times higher photocurrent than that generated by I3-rich devices under the same light intensity

MXenes for Plasmonic Photodetection

MXenes have recently shown impressive optical and plasmonic properties associated with their ultrathin-atomic-layer structure. However, their potential use in photonic and plasmonic devices has been only marginally explored. Photodetectors made of five different MXenes are fabricated, among which molybdenum carbide MXene (Mo2CTx) exhibits the best performance. Mo2CTx MXene thin films deposited on paper substrates exhibit broad photoresponse in the range of 400–800 nm with high responsivity (up to 9 A W−1), detectivity (≈5 × 1011 Jones), and reliable photoswitching characteristics at a wavelength of 660 nm. Spatially resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy and ultrafast femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy of the MXene nanosheets reveal that the photoresponse of Mo2CTx is strongly dependent on its surface plasmon-assisted hot carriers. Additionally, Mo2CTx thin-film devices are shown to be relatively stable under ambient conditions, continuous illumination and mechanical stresses, illustrating their durable photodetection operation in the visible spectral range. Micro-Raman spectroscopy conducted on bare Mo2CTx film and on gold electrodes allowing for surface-enhanced Raman scattering demonstrates surface chemistry and a specific low-frequency band that is related to the vibrational modes of the single nanosheets. The specific ability to detect and excite individual surface plasmon modes provides a viable platform for various MXene-based optoelectronic applications

Tunable Multipolar Surface Plasmons in 2D Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> MXene Flakes

2D Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> MXenes were recently shown to exhibit intense surface plasmon (SP) excitations; however, their spatial variation over individual Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> flakes remains undiscovered. Here, we use scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) combined with ultra-high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) to investigate the spatial and energy distribution of SPs (both optically active and forbidden modes) in mono- and multilayered Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> flakes. With STEM-EELS mapping, the inherent interband transition in addition to a variety of transversal and longitudinal SP modes (ranging from visible down to 0.1 eV in MIR) are directly visualized and correlated with the shape, size, and thickness of Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> flakes. The independent polarizability of Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> monolayers is unambiguously demonstrated and attributed to their unusual weak interlayer coupling. This characteristic allows for engineering a class of nanoscale systems, where each monolayer in the multilayered structure of Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> has its own set of SPs with distinctive multipolar characters. Moreover, the tunability of the SP energies is highlighted by conducting <i>in situ heating</i> STEM to monitor the change of the surface functionalization of Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> through annealing at temperatures up to 900 °C. At temperatures above 500 °C, the observed fluorine (F) desorption multiplies the metal-like free electron density of Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i> flakes, resulting in a monotonic blue-shift in the SP energy of all modes. These results underline the great potential for the development of Ti₃C₂<i>T</i>_<i>x</i>-based applications, spanning the visible–MIR spectrum, relying on the excitation and detection of single SPs

Giant Photoluminescence Enhancement in CsPbCl<inf>3</inf> Perovskite Nanocrystals by Simultaneous Dual-Surface Passivation

The presence of localized trap states on the surface of CsPbCl3 perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) is one of the greatest challenges precluding the development of optoelectronic applications of these NCs. Passivation of these defect sites provides a promising pathway to remediating their electronic and optical properties, such as the photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). Herein, we demonstrate a postsynthetic dual-surface treatment using trivalent metal ion salts, i.e., YCl3, as a new passivation approach that enhances the PLQY up to 60% while preserving the NC size and crystal structure. Such remarkable enhancement of the PLQY along with prolongation of the average PL lifetimes of treated NCs samples indicates effective passivation of the surface defects and subsequent suppression of the formation of surface nonradiative recombination centers. As a segue toward optoelectronic applications, we probed the photoelectric performance of the NCs using ultraflexible devices; we found that YCl3-treated CsPbCl3 NC films exhibit an order of magnitude larger photocurrent compared to their nontreated counterparts. Our experimental and theoretical results provide an insightful understanding of the effective passivating roles of Y3+ and Cl- ions on the surface of CsPbCl3 NCs, as well as offering a new path to synthesize high-quality NCs for UV light conversion applications

Room-Temperature Reactivity Of Silicon Nanocrystals With Solvents: The Case Of Ketone And Hydrogen Production From Secondary Alcohols: Catalysis?

Although silicon nanoparticles dispersed in liquids are used in various applications ranging from biolabeling to hydrogen production, their reactivities with their solvents and their catalytic properties remain still unexplored. Here, we discovered that, because of their surface structures and mechanical strain, silicon nanoparticles react strongly with their solvents and may act as catalysts for the dehydrogenation, at room temperature, of secondary alcohols (e.g., isopropanol) into ketones and hydrogen. This catalytic reaction was monitored by gas chromatography, pH measurements, mass spectroscopy, and solid-state NMR. This discovery provides new understanding of the role played by silicon nanoparticles, and nanosilicon in general, in their reactivity in solvents in general, as well as being candidates in catalysis