Recently, the research team led by Prof. He Daping from the Sanya Science and Education Innovation Park of WUT made remarkable breakthrough in the field of 2D materials which features the scalable production of kilogram-scale defect-free MXene nanosheets. Relevant findings, entitled “Kilogram-Scale Water-Mediated Exfoliation Strategy for Defect-Free Single-Layer MXene Nanosheets”, was published in Advanced Materials. The Sanya Science and Education Innovation Park is the first affiliation, with doctoral students Si Yunfa and Chen Zibo, and postdoctoral fellow Shi Zuhao, under Hainan special program, as co-first authors.

2D transition metal carbides (MXenes) have shown great potential in the landscape of advanced materials, including electronic devices, energy storage, and ion-selective membranes, owing to their metallic conductivity, hydrophilic surfaces, and chemical tunability. However, a persistent “quality-scalability paradox” plagues the synthesis of MXene: traditional high-yield methods for MXenes typically involve high-energy mechanical input, often introducing a substantial density of defects, which causes performance degradation.

To address this problem, they innovatively present a water-mediated exfoliation strategy to produce kilogram-scale defect-free single-layer MXene nanosheets with high yields of about 84.6%, bridging the critical gap between in-lab synthesis and industrial application. Supported by Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City and Sanya Hanxi Graphene Institute Technology Co., Ltd., this achievement has successfully moved from laboratory to pilot-scale production. The MXene conductive ink and related devices have already secured their first commercial orders. The products are widely applicable in screen printing or inkjet printing of high-capacity micro-supercapacitors, flexible printed circuits, wearable strain/pressure sensors, RF antennas, and biomedical electrodes, showing great commercial potential.

Figure 1  Mechanism and scalability of the water-mediated exfoliation strategy

Figure 2  Atomic-scale structural evaluation of MXene nanosheets

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.72943

Written by: Marine Graphene Electromagnetic Materials Innovation Team

Rewritten by: Mei Mengqi

Edited by: Li Huihui, Li Tiantian

Source: Sanya Science and Education Innovation Park of WUT