Electro-Synthesis of Ultrafine V <sub>2</sub> AlC MAX-Phase and Its Conversion Process towards Two-Dimensional V <sub>2</sub> CT <sub>X</sub>
Pengjie Liu, Zhuoran Hou, Mengjun Hu, Liwen Hu, Rong Tang, Hongfei Wu, Meilong Hu
Abstract
V 2 AlC is a typical ternary intermetallic compound and a precursor to synthesis 2D-MXenes V 2 C. This work used cheap metal oxides and carbon as simple starting materials to fabricate MAX phases carbide V 2 AlC by molten salt electrolysis, and the obtained product could be converted into 2D V 2 C by a chemical etching process easily. The obtained ultrafine V 2 AlC possess high purity and homogeneity, and the 2D V 2 C from the chemical etching presented a unique layered Nano-sheets structure. TEM and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were combined to analysis the micromorphology and the chemical bonding states. And the reaction mechanism has been investigated to explore the facile synthetic method of V 2 AlC and 2D V 2 C.