(7df) Beyond Graphene: Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Carbides and Nitrides (MXenes)

The research community in the field of materials science has been steadily expanding the family of few-atom-thick crystals beyond graphene, discovering new 2D materials or producing known materials in a 2D state and demonstrating their unique properties. Transition metal carbides (TMCs), which are prepared by integrating carbon atoms into the interstitial sites of their parent metals, combine the properties of ceramics and metals and are emerging as new candidates for applications in sensors, electronics, catalysis, and energy storage and conversion (ESC) devices due to controllable band gap, superior reactivity, and strong mechanical and chemical stability. Recently, a breakthrough was carried out by our group (the Gogotsi Group), by extending the 2D concept to TMC family. Benefited from the top-down nanostructuring, the 2D TMCs (so-called MXenes) show significantly improved electrochemical performance, especially in high-volume energy densities (Science, 341 (6153), 1502-1505; Nature, 516 (7529), 78-81). Besides, they can be either metallic materials for semiconductors depends on their compositions and surface functionality. However, the lack of large-area and high-quality crystals hindered investigations of their intrinsic physics and properties for sensing applications. Besides, it is still a great challenge to synthesis 2D TMCs or MXenes in large quantity and high stability due to the critical synthesis process, which hinders their large scale applications.

Research Interests:

To solve these issues, my research will focus on the synthesis, characterizations, and nanofabrication of 2D TMCs and their heterostructures for sensors and ESC device applications. In particular, initial interests will lie in chemical vapor deposition of large-area, high-quality 2D transition metal carbides (TMCs) for field emission transistor-based sensing applications. Besides, I would also propose the research on template-synthesis of large quantity 2D TMCs for energy storage. Efforts will also be devoted to the fabrication of 2D TMC-containing heterostructures, towards the performance improvement in sensor and energy storage applications.

Teaching Interests:

In the curriculum of the Chemical Engineering, there are a number of courses which I would be particularly interested to teach, including Intro to Physical Chemistry, Reaction Engineering, Principle of Transfer Processes, and others. There are 2 courses that I am eager to develop (either in collaboration with other faculty members or by myself). The first course would be “Emerging Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Energy Storage”; it would familiarize students with different nanomaterial synthesis techniques, energy storage technologies, and discuss the physicochemical properties of several typical nanomaterials and their applications in batteries and supercapacitors. The second course I plan to develop would be “Electron Microscopy Characterizations in Catalysis”. This class would introduce students to different electron microscopy techniques that are commonly used to characterize various catalysts and will describe important structure-activity relationships that exist in catalysis.