Continuous flow vortex fluidic-mediated exfoliation and fragmentation of two-dimensional MXene

Abstract

MXene (Ti2CTx) is exfoliated in a vortex fluidic device (VFD), as a thin film microfluidic platform, under continuous flow conditions, down to ca 3 nm thin multi-layered two-dimensional (2D) material, as determined using AFM. The optimized process, under an inert atmosphere of nitrogen to avoid oxidation of the material, was established by systematically exploring the operating parameters of the VFD, along with the concentration of the dispersed starting material and the choice of solvent, which was a 1: 1 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water. There is also some fragmentation of the 2D material into nanoparticles ca 68 nm in diameter.