![]() The first step is using a Lewis acidic molten salt (LAMS) etching protocol that removes the A layer, as usual, but is also able to replace it with another element, such as chlorine. "While this allowed us to create dozens of MXenes, and predict that many dozen more could be created, the process did not allow for a great deal of control or precision."īy contrast, the process that the team - led by Gogotsi and Qing Huang, PhD, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences - reported in its Science paper explains that, "chemical scissor-mediated structural editing of layered transition metal carbides ," is more like performing surgery, according to Gogotsi. "Previously we could only produce new MXenes by adjusting the chemistry of the MAX phase or the acid used to etch it," Gogotsi said. But in some ways, the potential for MXenes has been capped from their inception by the way they're produced and the limited set of MAX phases and etchants that can be used to create them. ![]() Graphene's discovery expanded the search for other atomically thin materials with extraordinary properties - like MXenes.ĭrexel's team has been assiduously exploring the properties of MXene materials, leading to discoveries about its exceptional electrical conductivity, durability and ability to attract and filter chemical compounds, among others. The discovery came on the heels of worldwide excitement about a two-dimensional nanomaterial called graphene, posited to be the strongest material in existence when the team of researchers who discovered it won the Nobel prize in 2010. Applying a strong acid to the MAX phase chemically etches away the A layer, creating a more porously layered material - with an A-less moniker: MXene. MXenes begin as a precursor material called a MAX phase "MAX" is a chemical portmanteau signifying the three layers of the material: M, A, and X. Gogotsi and his collaborators at Drexel have been studying the properties of a family of layered nanomaterials called MXenes, that they discovered in 2011. "We are showing a way to assemble and disassemble these materials like LEGO blocks, which will lead to the development of exciting new materials that have not even been predicted to be able to exist until now." "This research opens a new era of materials science, enabling atomistic engineering of two-dimensional and layered materials," said Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University professor and Bach chair in Drexel's College of Engineering, who was an author of the research. ![]() In a paper recently published in Science, the international team reported on a method to sharpen the scissors so that they can cut through extremely strong and stable layered nanomaterials in a way that breaks atomic bonds within a single atomic plane, then substitutes new elements - fundamentally altering the material's composition in a single chemical "snip." The original set of chemical scissors, designed to break carbon-hydrogen bonds in organic molecules, was reported more than a decade ago. A "chemical scissor" is a chemical designed to react with a specific compound to break a chemical bond.
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