Achieving ultrahigh electrochemical performance by surface design and nanoconfined water manipulation
Haisheng Li, Kui Xu, Pohua Chen, Youyou Yuan, Yi Qiu, Ligang Wang, Liu Zhu, Xiaoge Wang, Guohong Cai, Liming Zheng, Chun Dai, Deng Zhou, Nian Zhang, Jixin Zhu, Jinglin Xie, Fuhui Liao, Hailin Peng, Yong Peng, Jing Ju, Zifeng Lin, Junliang Sun
Abstract
Abstract The effects of nanoconfined water and the charge storage mechanism are crucial to achieving the ultrahigh electrochemical performance of two-dimensional transition metal carbides (MXenes). We propose a facile method to manipulate nanoconfined water through surface chemistry modification. By introducing oxygen and nitrogen surface groups, more active sites were created for Ti3C2 MXene, and the interlayer spacing was significantly increased by accommodating three-layer nanoconfined water. Exceptionally high capacitance of 550 F g–1 (2000 F cm–3) was obtained with outstanding high-rate performance. The atomic scale elucidation of the layer-dependent properties of nanoconfined water and pseudocapacitive charge storage was deeply probed through a combination of ‘computational and experimental microscopy’. We believe that an understanding of, and a manipulation strategy for, nanoconfined water will shed light on ways to improve the electrochemical performance of MXene and other two-dimensional materials.