Mildly Peeling Off and Encapsulating Large MXene Nanosheets with Rigid Biologic Fibrils for Synchronization of Solar Evaporation and Energy Harvest

Abstract

Efficient and nondestructive liquid exfoliation of MXene with large lateral size has drawn growing research interest due to its outstanding properties and diverse potential applications. The conventional sonication method, though enabling a high production yield of MXene nanosheets, broke them down into submicrometric sizes or even quantum dots, and thus sacrificed their size-dependent properties, chemical stability, and wide applications. Herein, rigid biological nanofibrils in combination of mild manual shake were found to be capable of peeling off MXene nanosheets by attaching on MXene surfaces and localizing the shear force. With comparison to sonication, this efficient and nondestructive exfoliation approach produced the MXene nanosheets with the lateral size up to 4−6 μm and a comparable yield of 64% within 2 h. The resultant MXene nanosheets were encapsulated with these biological fibrils, and thus enabled super colloidal and chemical stability. A steam generation efficiency of ∼86% and a high evaporation rate of 3.3 kg m −2 h −1 were achieved on their aerogels under 1-Sun irradiation at ∼25 °C. An evaporation rate of 0.5 kg m −2 h −1 still maintained even at the atmospheric temperature of −5 °C. More importantly, an electricity generation up to ∼350 mV also accompanied this solar evaporation under equivalent 5-Sun irradiation. Thus, this fibrous strategy not only provides an efficient and nondestructive exfoliation method of MXene, but also promises synchronization of solar-thermal evaporation and energy harvest.

A general strategy to immobilize metal nanoparticles on MXene composite fabrics for enhanced sensing performance and endowed multifunctionality

“…These results demonstrate the formation of H-bonds between MXene and NWF, as documented in other reports. 49,50 Thus, a uniform and dense MXene coating was formed on the NWF (Fig. 1(e) and Fig.…”

MXenes and Their Derivatives for Advanced Solid‐State Energy Storage Devices

“…[ 18b,30,65 ] In addition, the prepared colloidal suspensions of MXenes are usually stable without aggregating on account of the negative charge on MXenes nanosheets. [ 66 ] In 2022, rigid biofibrils combined with hand shake approach could realize efficient stripping of MXene with a yield up to 64% within 2 h. [ 67 ] This was due to the fact that interaction between fibrils and MXene as well as structural rigidity of fibrils were conductive to transfer and localize the stress for peeling off MXene as exposing these fibrils to shear. It was noted that the large‐scale delamination methods are more meaningful for the practical application of MXene.…”

Gradient heating induced better balance among water transportation, salt resistance and heat supply in a high performance multi-functional solar-thermal desalination device

“…Meanwhile, the CCP film around the evaporator can provide a stable heat supply to the evaporator, making the water evaporation rate of VA-PDA@CNT/PVA with the CCP film evaporator reach the maximum, so that the ion flow is the fastest. The performance (voltage and evaporation performance) of VA-PDA@CNT/PVA with the CCP film evaporator is compared with that of the literature, [21][22][23][24][25]47,[61][62][63] and the comprehensive performance has an advantage (Fig. 6(f)).…”