9:15 AM - NM03.04.03
Plasma Engineering of Ti2C MXene and In Situ Oxidation of Ti2C MXene Using Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Printing
Lois Damptey1,Nicholas Power1,Suela Kellici2,Satheesh Krishnamurthy1
The Open University1,London South Bank University2
Show Abstract
Two-dimensional material, MXene and its applications have gained tremendous attention since its discovery in 2011. 1 There have been enormous efforts to tailor MXene properties making it a viable prospect in various applications such as energy storage (rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors), energy generation (photocatalysis and electrocatalysis, solar cells), environmental remediation (water treatment etc.) and biomedical applications. 2 3 4 5 The sensitivity of two-dimensional materials could be achieved by surface modification through engineering defects through surface functionalisation.
Plasma functionalisation is one of the most common modification methods in defect engineering 6 with the advantages of low cost, environmentally benign, scalability. Plasma modification generates an efficient production of reactive ions with Ti2C MXene, that can effectively produce defects such as oxygen vacancies and change the structure of Ti2C MXenes. In this work, atmospheric pressure plasma printing, with helium as a carrier gas and oxygen as a reducing gas, was used to (i)ionise and print simultaneously which resulted (ii) in the in situ formation TiO2 from prepared Ti2C MXene which could form a heterostructure with improved bandgap and (iii) and simultaneously generate oxygen vacancies (via reduction of Ti4+ forming Ti3+ ).
Various characterisation techniques were employed to establish the correlation between the surface groups and termination groups ofTi2C MXene before and after helium-oxygen plasma functionalisation and printing. SEM and TEM investigation showed that controlled oxygen plasma treatment broke Ti-C bonds and generated abundant Ti-O bonds on Ti2C MXene. Raman imaging was also used to examine plasma-induced damage in Ti2C MXene after oxygen plasma treatment and not only changes in D/G ratio but also active anatase TiO2 after the plasma oxidization process. These measurements showed not only conversion of Ti2C to TiO2 but also defect generation in Ti2C MXenes after 3 minutes of plasma treatment. XPS results showed the varying oxidation states on the surface of Ti2C MXene after different plasma exposure times. In addition, the surface tension of Ti2C MXene was thoroughly investigated by the contact angle and topography measurements. The nanocomposites were applied for photodegradation of organic pollutants.
References
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