Water-induced strong isotropic MXene-bridged graphene sheets for electrochemical energy storage
Jiao Yang, Mingzhu Li, Shaoli Fang, Yanlei Wang, Hongyan He, Chenlu Wang, Zejun Zhang, Bicheng Yuan, Lei Jiang, Ray H. Baughman, Qunfeng Cheng
Abstract
Graphene and two-dimensional transition metal carbides and/or nitrides (MXenes) are important materials for making flexible energy storage devices because of their electrical and mechanical properties. It remains a challenge to assemble nanoplatelets of these materials at room temperature into in-plane isotropic, free-standing sheets. Using nanoconfined water-induced basal-plane alignment and covalent and π-π interplatelet bridging, we fabricated Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene-bridged graphene sheets at room temperature with isotropic in-plane tensile strength of 1.87 gigapascals and moduli of 98.7 gigapascals. The in-plane room temperature electrical conductivity reached 1423 siemens per centimeter, and volumetric specific capacity reached 828 coulombs per cubic centimeter. This nanoconfined water-induced alignment likely provides an important approach for making other aligned macroscopic assemblies of two-dimensional nanoplatelets.