On July 5, Science published the research article titled “Ultrastrong MXene Film Induced by Sequential Bridging with Liquid Metal”, which demonstrates latest progress in the research of two-dimensional nanosheets by Prof. Cheng Qunfeng’s group at the School of Chemistry of Beihang University.
As is introduced in the abstract of this article, assembling titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx) MXene nanosheets into macroscopic films presents challenges, including voids, low orientation degree, and weak interfacial interactions, which reduce mechanical performance. This article demonstrates an ultrastrong macroscopic MXene film using liquid metal (LM) and bacterial cellulose (BC) to sequentially bridge MXene nanosheets (an LBM film), achieving a tensile strength of 908.4 megapascals. A layer-by-layer approach using repeated cycles of blade coating improves the orientation degree to 0.935 in the LBM film, while a LM with good deformability reduces voids into porosity of 5.4%. The interfacial interactions are enhanced by the hydrogen bonding from BC and the coordination bonding with LM, which improves the stress-transfer efficiency. Sequential bridging provides an avenue for assembling other two-dimensional nanosheets into high-performance materials.
Li Wei, PhD student from Beihang University is the first author. Postdoctoral fellow Zhou Tianzhu and PhD students Zhang Zejun and Li Lei are co-first authors, and Professor Cheng Qunfeng is the corresponding author. This is the third article published in Science by Prof. Cheng’s group since 2021.
Academician Jiang Lei from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Wei Xiang from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Nanyang Technological University, Associate Professor Wang Yanlei and PhD student Lu Junfeng from Renmin University of China, Researcher Yu Xiqian and Doctor Pan Hongyi from Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Zeng Jianrong from Shanghai Light Source Line Station Project BL13SSW also contributed to this work.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, etc.
Link to the article: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado4257
Prof. Cheng Qunfeng’s group website: http://chengresearch.net/zh/home-cn/
（Source: School of Chemistry）
Written by: Lu Meili
