Potential of MXenes in Water Desalination: Current Status and Perspectives

Abstract

HIGHLIGHTS • A broad overview of MXenes and MXene-based nanomaterials in desalination is presented. • Recent advancement in the synthesis of MXenes for applications in desalination is critically evaluated. Salt removal mechanisms and regeneration capability of MXenes are appraised. • Current challenges and future prospect of MXenes in desalination are highlighted. Research directions are provided to safeguard the applications of MXenes in future desalination. ABSTRACT MXenes, novel 2D transition metal carbides, have emerged as wonderful nanomaterials and a superlative contestant for a host of applications. The tremendous characteristics of MXenes, i.e., high surface area, high metallic conductivity, ease of functionalization, biocompatibility, activated metallic hydroxide sites, and hydrophilicity, make them the best aspirant for applications in energy storage, catalysis, sensors, electronics, and environmental remediation. Due to their exceptional physicochemical properties and multifarious chemical compositions, MXenes have gained considerable attention for applications in water treatment and desalination in recent times. It is vital to understand the current status of MXene applications in desalination in order to define the roadmap for the development of MXene-based materials and endorse their practical applications in the future. This paper critically reviews the recent advancement in the synthesis of MXenes and MXene-based composites for applications in desalination. The desalination potential of MXenes is portrayed in detail with a focus on ion-sieving membranes, capacitive deionization, and solar desalination. The ion removal mechanism and regeneration ability of MXenes are also summarized to get insight into the process. The key challenges and issues associated with the synthesis and applications of MXenes and MXene-based composites in desalination are highlighted. Lastly, research directions are provided to guarantee the synthesis and applications of MXenes in a more effective way. This review may provide an insight into the applications of MXenes for water desalination in the future.

Ultraefficiently Calming Cytokine Storm Using Ti3C2Tx MXene

“…[ 14 ] Recently, MXenes, a new family of 2D materials including transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides, have been extensively investigated for many functional applications, [ 15 ] owing to their intriguing physical and chemical properties. [ 16–18 ] In this work, we first explored Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene nanosheet as a potential hemoperfusion absorbent to remove a typical cytokine IL‐6. We discovered that Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene sheets had demonstrated an ultrahigh efficiency to remove IL‐6 cytokine, which is 13.4 times higher than that of traditional AC absorbent.…”

Advantages, limitations, and future suggestions in studying graphene-based desalination membranes

“…The performance of different nanoporous graphene or stacked GO membranes has been described. Some new hybrid graphenebased membrane designs, such as using MXenes, [113][114][115][116] GO quantum dots, 113 carbon nanotubes 105,107 have also been presented. The use of graphene nanomaterials in membranes for other desalination processes, such as membrane distillation and forward osmosis, was also examined.…”

Bayberry tannin directed assembly of a bifunctional graphene aerogel for simultaneous solar steam generation and marine uranium extraction

“…The characteristics of functional groups in BGA are explored by infrared spectroscopy. As shown in Figure 2c and Figure S11, BGA has a double peak around 1500 cm -1 , which is corresponding to the stretching vibration peak of phenolic hydroxyl, the one that is originally [ν(C-OH)] belong to BT 17 .The peak shifted to low wavenumber compared with BT, indicating that hydrogen bonds are formed between BTs and rGO 37,38 . The hydrogen bond immobilizes BTs in BGA, which guarantees its function of uranium extraction.…”

“…For uranium extraction, the immobilization of specific chemical group on porous materials is the most promising method 9,10 . Plenty of porous materials have been utilized, such as mesoporous silica 11,12 , polymers 13,14 , carbon nanomaterials 15 , MOF 16 , and even MXene 17 . Much progress has been made on the improvement of performance of the SSG and uranium extraction.…”