Surface Modifications of Ti₃C₂T_x MXene and Their Impact on Its Physiochemical Properties

MXenes, a recently discovered family of two-dimensional transition metal carbide/nitride nanomaterials, have garnered considerable attention from researchers due to demonstrating many advantageous properties such as high electrical conductivity, mechanical sturdiness and flexibility, and colloidal stability in water. As a result, they have found applications in many fields, such as energy storage, smart textiles, flexible electronics, optoelectronics, catalysis, filtration devices, and sensors. Due to the success MXenes have had in these and many other fields, there has been a recent shift towards using these nanomaterials in biomedical and environmental applications. However, it has been recently discovered that when solutions of MXenes are made in more complex media (e.g., buffers), which are ubiquitously used in these fields, they tend to have adverse effects on the physiochemical properties of MXenes. Therefore, this project aims to develop a molecular level understanding of the complex interactions that occur at the MXene surface when suspended in complex media while simultaneously developing a strategy to modify the MXene surface to reduce these detrimental effects by using a combined computational and experimental approach.