Abstract
This chapter discusses chemical properties of MXenes focusing on the potential catalytic properties of these materials that can enable chemical transformations of relevance for achieving a sustainable energy future. First, we give an overview of the status of this new field providing a summary of where MXenes have been studied both experimentally and theoretically as catalyst materials as well as where discovery has benefited from a combined computational-experimental approach. We exemplify the combined computational-experimental approach and the crucial impact of a feedback loop between the two by using the hydrogen evolution reaction. When it comes to modeling, we describe how we can use high-throughput computational screening approaches to calculate reactivity and activity properties based on fundamental insight and understanding established prior to the screening process which in turn can be used to identify MXene candidate materials for specific chemical transformations. The chapter is concluded by providing some directions on how we could proceed discovery of new multicomponent MXene materials for chemical transformations.
Keywords
- Chemical transformations
- Catalysis
- Electrocatalysis
- Hydrogen evolution reaction
- Basal plane functionalization
- Computational chemistry
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options








References
Seh, Z. W., et al. (2016). Two-dimensional molybdenum carbide (MXene) as an efficient electrocatalyst for hydrogen evolution. ACS Energy Letters, 1, 589–594.
Gao, G., & Du, A. (2017). 2D MXenes: A new family of promising catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. ACS Catalysis, 7, 494–500.
Fredrickson, K. D., Anasori, B., Seh, Z. W., Gogotsi, Y., & Vojvodic, A. (2016). Effects of applied potential and water intercalation on the surface chemistry of Ti2C and Mo2C MXenes. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 120, 28432–22844.
Handoko, A. D., et al. (2018). Tuning the basal plane functionalization of two-dimensional metal carbides (MXenes) to control hydrogen evolution activity. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 1, 173–180.
Shao, M., et al. (2017). Synergistic effect of 2D Ti2C and g-C3N4 for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5, 16748–16756.
Yuan, W., et al. (2018). MXene nanofibers as highly active catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 6, 8976–8982.
Li, S., et al. (2018). Ultrathin MXene nanosheets with rich fluorine termination groups realizing efficient electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Nano Energy, 47, 512–518.
Jiang, W., et al. (2018). Universal descriptor for large-scale screening of high-performance MXene-based materials for energy storage and conversion. Chemistry of Materials, 30, 2687–2693.
Ran, J., et al. (2017). Ti3C2 MXene co-catalyst on metal sulfide photo-absorbers for enhanced visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production. Nature Communications, 8, 13907.
Wang, H., et al. (2016). Titania composites with 2D transition metal carbides as photocatalysts for hydrogen production under visible-light irradiation. ChemSusChem, 9, 1490–1497.
Boudart, M., Delbouille, A., Dumesic, J. A., Khammouma, S., & Topsøe, H. (1975). Surface, catalytic and magnetic properties of small iron particles. I. Preparation and characterization of samples. Journal of Catalysis, 37, 486–502.
Pandey, M., & Thygesen, K. S. (2017). Two-dimensional MXenes as catalysts for electrochemical hydrogen evolution: A computational screening study. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 121, 13593–13598.
Li, P., et al. (2018). High-throughput theoretical optimization of hydrogen evolution reaction on MXenes by transition metal modification. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 6, 4271–4278.
Pan, H. (2016). Ultra-high electrochemical catalytic activity of MXenes. Scientific Reports, 6, 32531.
Tran, M. H., et al. (2018). Adding a new member to the MXene family: Synthesis, structure and electrocatalytic activity for the hydrogen evolution reaction of V4C3Tx. ACS Applied Energy Materials, 8, 3908–3914.
Su, T., et al. (2018). One-step synthesis of Nb2O5/C/Nb2C (MXene) composites and their use as photocatalysts for hydrogen evolution. ChemSusChem, 11, 688–699.
Xiu, L., Wang, Z., Yu, M., Wu, X., & Qiu, J. (2018). Aggregation-resistant 3D MXene-based architecture as efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting. ACS Nano, 8, 8017–8028.
Junkaew, A., & Arróyave, R. (2018). Enhancement of the selectivity of MXenes (M2C, M = Ti, V, Nb, Mo) via oxygen-functionalization: promising materials for gas-sensing and -separation. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20, 6073–6082.
Guo, Z., Zhou, J., Zhu, L., & Sun, Z. (2016). MXene: a promising photocatalyst for water splitting. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 4, 11446–11452.
Ma, T. Y., Cao, J. L., Jaroniec, M., & Qiao, S. Z. (2016). Interacting carbon nitride and titanium carbide nanosheets for high-performance oxygen evolution. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 55, 1138–1142.
Wang, H., et al. (2017). Molybdenum carbide nanoparticles embedded in nitrogen-doped porous carbon nanofibers as a dual catalyst for hydrogen evolution and oxygen reduction reactions. Carbon (New York), 114, 628–634.
Xie, X., Chen, S., Ding, W., Nie, Y., & Wei, Z. (2013). An extraordinarily stable catalyst: Pt NPs supported on two-dimensional Ti3C2X2(X = OH, F) nanosheets for oxygen reduction reaction. Chemical Communications, 49, 10112–10114.
Zhang, Z., et al. (2016). Self-reduction synthesis of new MXene/Ag composites with unexpected electrocatalytic activity. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 4, 6763–6771.
Azofra, L. M., Li, N., MacFarlane, D. R., & Sun, C. (2016). Promising prospects for 2D d2–d4 M3C2 transition metal carbides (MXenes) in N2 capture and conversion into ammonia. Energy & Environmental Science, 9, 2545–2549.
Shao, M., et al. (2018). Efficient nitrogen fixation to ammonia on MXenes. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20, 14504–14512.
Handoko, A. D., Khoo, K. H., Tan, T. L., Jin, H., & Seh, Z. W. (2018). Establishing new scaling relations on two-dimensional MXenes for CO2 electroreduction. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 6, 21885–21890.
Li, N., et al. (2017). Understanding of electrochemical mechanisms for CO2 capture and conversion into hydrocarbon fuels in transition-metal carbides (MXenes). ACS Nano, 11, 10825–10833.
Morales-garcía, Á., Fernández-fernández, A., Viñes, F., & Illas, F. (2018). CO2 abatement by two-dimensional MXene carbides. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 6, 3381–3385.
Zhang, X., et al. (2016). A Ti-anchored Ti2CO2 monolayer (MXene) as a single-atom catalyst for CO oxidation. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 4, 4871–4876.
Cheng, C., Zhang, X., Wang, M., Wang, S., & Yang, Z. (2018). Single Pd atomic catalyst on Mo2CO2 monolayer (MXene): unusual activity for CO oxidation by trimolecular Eley–Rideal mechanism. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 20, 3504–3513.
Li, X., Fan, G., & Zeng, C. (2014). Synthesis of ruthenium nanoparticles deposited on graphene-like transition metal carbide as an effective catalyst for the hydrolysis of sodium borohydride. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 39, 14927–14934.
Ming, M., et al. (2017). Promoted effect of alkalization on the catalytic performance of Rh/alk-Ti3C2X2(X = O, F) for the hydrodechlorination of chlorophenols in base-free aqueous medium. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 210, 462–469.
Liu, T., Wang, Q., Yuan, J., Zhao, X., & Gao, G. (2018). Highly dispersed bimetallic nanoparticles supported on titanium carbides for remarkable hydrogen release from hydrous hydrazine. ChemCatChem, 10, 2200.
Gao, Y., et al. (2014). Preparation of MXene-Cu2O nanocomposite and effect on thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. Solid State Sciences, 35, 62–65.
Zou, G., et al. (2017). Synthesis of nanoflower-shaped MXene derivative with unexpected catalytic activity for dehydrogenation of sodium alanates. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9, 7611–7618.
Fan, Y., et al. (2018). Two-dimensional MXene/A-TiO2 composite with unprecedented catalytic activation for sodium alanate. Catalysis Today, 318, 167–174.
Wu, R., et al. (2016). Remarkably improved hydrogen storage properties of NaAlH4 doped with 2D titanium carbide. Journal of Power Sources, 327, 519–525.
Ye, M., Wang, X., Liu, E., Ye, J., & Wang, D. (2018). Boosting the photocatalytic activity of P25 for carbon dioxide reduction by using a surface-alkalinized titanium carbide MXene as cocatalyst. ChemSusChem, 11, 1606–1611.
Low, J., Zhang, L., Tong, T., Shen, B., & Yu, J. (2018). TiO2/MXene Ti3C2 composite with excellent photocatalytic CO2 reduction activity. Journal of Catalysis, 361, 255–266.
Lin, H., Wang, X., Yu, L., Chen, Y., & Shi, J. (2017). Two-dimensional ultrathin MXene ceramic nanosheets for photothermal conversion. Nano Letters, 17, 384–391.
Zhang, H., et al. (2016). Computational studies on the structural, electronic and optical properties of graphene-like MXenes (M2CT2, M = Ti, Zr, Hf; T = O, F, OH) and their potential applications as visible-light driven photocatalysts. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 4, 12913–12920.
Zhang, X., et al. (2017). Ti2CO2 MXene: a highly active and selective photocatalyst for CO2 reduction. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5, 12899–12903.
Cao, S., Shen, B., Tong, T., Fu, J., & Yu, J. (2018). 2D/2D heterojunction of ultrathin MXene/Bi2WO6 nanosheets for improved photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Advanced Functional Materials, 28, 1800136.
Hinnemann, B., et al. (2005). Biomimetic hydrogen evolution: MoS2 nanoparticles as catalyst for hydrogen evolution. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 127, 5308–5309.
Hu, T., et al. (2017). Chemical origin of termination-functionalized MXenes: Ti3C2T2 as a case study. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 121, 19254–19261.
Srivastava, P., Mishra, A., Mizuseki, H., Lee, K. R., & Singh, A. K. (2016). Mechanistic insight into the chemical exfoliation and functionalization of Ti3C2MXene. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 8, 24256–24264.
Hope, M. A., et al. (2016). NMR reveals the surface functionalisation of Ti3C2 MXene. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 18, 5099–5102.
Naguib, M., Mochalin, V. N., Barsoum, M. W., & Gogotsi, Y. (2014). 25th anniversary article: MXenes: a new family of two-dimensional materials. Advanced Materials, 26, 992–1005.
Gogotsi, Y., & Barsoum, M. W. (2012). Two-dimensional transition metal carbides. ACS Nano, 6, 1322–1331.
Nørskov, J. K., et al. (2005). Trends in the exchange current for hydrogen evolution. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 152, J23–J26.
Peterson, A. A., Abild-Pedersen, F., Studt, F., Rossmeisl, J., & Nørskov, J. K. (2010). How copper catalyzes the electroreduction of carbon dioxide into hydrocarbon fuels. Energy & Environmental Science, 3, 1311.
Rossmeisl, J., Logadottir, A., & Nørskov, J. K. (2005). Electrolysis of water on (oxidized) metal surfaces. Chemical Physics, 319, 178–184.
Parsons, R. (1958). The rate of electrolytic hydrogen evolution and the heat of adsorption of hydrogen. Transactions of the Faraday Society, 54, 1053–1063.
Kibsgaard, J., et al. (2015). Designing an improved transition metal phosphide catalyst for hydrogen evolution using experimental and theoretical trends. Energy & Environmental Science, 8, 3022–3029.
Greeley, J., & Mavrikakis, M. (2004). Alloy catalysts designed from first principles. Nature Materials, 3, 810–815.
Greeley, J., Jaramillo, T. F., Bonde, J., Chorkendorff, I., & Nørskov, J. K. (2006). Computational high-throughput screening of electrocatalytic materials for hydrogen evolution. Nature Materials, 5, 909–913.
Ling, C., Shi, L., Ouyang, Y., & Wang, J. (2016). Searching for highly active catalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction based on O-terminated MXenes through a simple descriptor. Chemistry of Materials, 28, 9026–9032.
Soundiraraju, B., & George, B. K. (2017). Two-dimensional titanium nitride (Ti2N) MXene: synthesis, characterization, and potential application as surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrate. ACS Nano, 11, 8892–8900.
Urbankowski, P., et al. (2017). 2D molybdenum and vanadium nitrides synthesized by ammoniation of 2D transition metal carbides (MXenes). Nanoscale, 9, 17722–17730.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, L.R., Vojvodic, A. (2019). Chemistry and Catalysis of MXenes. In: Anasori, B., Gogotsi, Y. (eds) 2D Metal Carbides and Nitrides (MXenes). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19026-2_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19026-2_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-19025-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-19026-2
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)