LI Chao ¹, YANG Lei ¹, ZOU Yunqi ¹, YAN Ming ^2,3

(1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, Hubei, China; 2. Hubei Provincial Key Laboratory of Green Materials for Light Industry, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, Hubei, China; 3. Green Materials for Light Industry and Processing Collaborative Innovation Center, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, Hubei, China)

Abstract: Ti₂CT_x is a new kind of two-dimensional materials with potential uses in battery electrodes, supercapacitors and  composites for its excellent mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. The main methods to date for preparing Ti₂CTx use the hydrofluoric acid or a mixture of hydrochloric acid and fluoride salt to etch the Al from its precursor Ti₂AlC, which are usually accompanied with some dangers and environmental hazards. In this paper, the molten-salt method, a safer and more efficient  method, is proposed to prepare Ti₂CT_x, using a mixed fluoride salt (NaF-KF) to react with Ti₂AlC at 850 ℃, then the products were intercalated by TBOAH to obtain the Ti₂CT_x with a good delamination effect. The phase composition, microstructure and morphology of the prepared Ti₂CT_x were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the functional groups of the Ti₂CT_x were examined by fourier transform infrared spectrometer.
Key words: Ti₂CT_x; MXene; molten-salt method; intercalation reaction