Mostafa Dadashi Firouzjaei1,Daqian Jiang1,Mark Elliott1,Babak Anasori2
The University of Alabama1,Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis2
Mostafa Dadashi Firouzjaei1,Daqian Jiang1,Mark Elliott1,Babak Anasori2
The University of Alabama1,Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis2
Scaling up and environmental impacts associated with nanomaterials synthesis is a major challenge in the industries nowadays. As one of the cutting-edge nanostructures, MXenes, have significantly impacted materials science and nanotechnology since their discovery in 2011. Theoretical calculations have predicted more than 100 possible compositions of MXenes, and lab-scale fabrication of more than 40 MXene structures has been reported to date. The unique characteristics of MXenes have made them an ideal fit for a wide variety of applications, including energy storage, environmental, electronics, communications, gas, and liquid separations and adsorption, biomedical, and optoelectronics. By 2021, MXenes have already shown promise in several research areas, including energy storage devices, electromagnetic interference shielding, nanocomposites, and hybrid materials. In parallel, new applications are emerging where MXenes outperform other nanomaterials, such as in tribology. Despite all the new development in the MXenes field, there is no study of the environmental impacts of MXene synthesis. Here, we investigate the environmental impacts associated with the fabrication of Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<i><sub>x</sub></i> MXene as a coating layer for electromagnetic interface (EMI) shielding of communications satellites. We use aluminum and copper as an external normalization alternate to show the gaps and recommend solutions for improving the scalability of the Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<i><sub>x</sub></i> MXene. Two Ti<sub>3</sub>C<sub>2</sub>T<i><sub>x</sub></i> synthesis systems, a small laboratory scale (19.2 g per batch) and a large laboratory scale (800 kg per batch) were compared. We also investigated the use of TiO<sub>2</sub> instead of Ti for the synthesis of the MXene precursor as well as the effects of laboratory location on the environmental impacts of MXene. In summary, this work would help through the more efficient and environmentally friendly synthesis of MXenes, which is vital for considering the scale-up of MXenes.