Effect of Substitutional Oxygen on Properties of Ti C T MXene Produced Using Recycled TiO Source.

MXenes are an emerging class of 2D materials with unique properties including metallic conductivity, mechanical flexibility, and surface tunability, which ensure their utility for diverse applications. However, the synthesis of MXenes with high crystallinity and atomic stoichiometry in a low-cost process is still challenging because of the difficulty in controlling the oxygen substitute in the precursors and final products of MXenes, which limits their academic understanding and practical applications. Here, a novel cost-effective method is reported to synthesize a highly crystalline and stoichiometric Ti C T MXene with minimum substitutional oxygen impurities by controlling the amount of excess carbon and time of high-energy milling in carbothermal reduction of recycled TiO source.