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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Time‐Dependent Cation Selectivity of Titanium Carbide MXene in Aqueous Solution
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2022) Wang, Lei; Torkamanzadeh, Mohammad; Majed, Ahmad; Zhang, Yuan; Wang, Qingsong; Breitung, Ben; Feng, Guang; Naguib, Michael; Presser, Volker
    Electrochemical ion separation is a promising technology to recover valuable ionic species from water. Pseudocapacitive materials, especially 2D materials, are up-and-coming electrodes for electrochemical ion separation. For implementation, it is essential to understand the interplay of the intrinsic preference of a specific ion (by charge/size), kinetic ion preference (by mobility), and crystal structure changes. Ti3C2Tz MXene is chosen here to investigate its selective behavior toward alkali and alkaline earth cations. Utilizing an online inductively coupled plasma system, it is found that Ti3C2Tz shows a time-dependent selectivity feature. In the early stage of charging (up to about 50 min), K+ is preferred, while ultimately Ca2+ and Mg2+ uptake dominate; this unique phenomenon is related to dehydration energy barriers and the ion exchange effect between divalent and monovalent cations. Given the wide variety of MXenes, this work opens the door to a new avenue where selective ion-separation with MXene can be further engineered and optimized.
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    Best practice for electrochemical water desalination data generation and analysis
    (Maryland Heights, MO : Cell Press, 2023) Torkamanzadeh, Mohammad; Kök, Cansu; Burger, Peter Rolf; Ren, Panyu; Zhang, Yuan; Lee, Juhan; Kim, Choonsoo; Presser, Volker
    Electrochemical desalination shows promise for ion-selective, energy-efficient water desalination. This work reviews performance metrics commonly used for electrochemical desalination. We provide a step-by-step guide on acquiring, processing, and calculating raw desalination data, emphasizing informative and reliable figures of merit. A typical experiment uses calibrated conductivity probes to relate measured conductivity to concentration. Using a standard electrochemical desalination cell with activated carbon electrodes, we demonstrate the calculation of desalination capacity, charge efficiency, energy consumption, and ion selectivity metrics. We address potential pitfalls in performance metric calculations, including leakage current (charge) considerations and aging of conductivity probes, which can lead to inaccurate results. The relationships between pH, temperature, and conductivity are explored, highlighting their influence on final concentrations. Finally, we provide a checklist for calculating performance metrics and planning electrochemical desalination tests to ensure accuracy and reliability. Additionally, we offer simplified spreadsheet tools to aid data processing, system design, estimations, and upscaling.
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    Layered Nano‐Mosaic of Niobium Disulfide Heterostructures by Direct Sulfidation of Niobium Carbide MXenes for Hydrogen Evolution
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2022) Husmann, Samantha; Torkamanzadeh, Mohammad; Liang, Kun; Majed, Ahmad; Dun, Chaochao; Urban, Jeffrey J.; Naguib, Michael; Presser, Volker
    MXene-transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) heterostructures are synthesized through a one-step heat treatment of Nb2C and Nb4C3. These MXenes are used without delamination or any pre-treatment. Heat treatments accomplish the sacrificial transformation of these MXenes into TMD (NbS2) at 700 and 900 °C under H2S. This work investigates, for the first time, the role of starting MXene phase in the derivative morphology. It is shown that while treatment of Nb2C at 700 °C leads to the formation of pillar-like structures on the parent MXene, Nb4C3 produces nano-mosaic layered NbS2. At 900 °C, both MXene phases, of the same transition metal, fully convert into nano-mosaic layered NbS2 preserving the parent MXene's layered morphology. When tested as electrodes for hydrogen evolution reaction, Nb4C3-derived hybrids show better performance than Nb2C derivatives. The Nb4C3-derived heterostructure exhibits a low overpotential of 198 mV at 10 mA cm−2 and a Tafel slope of 122 mV dec−1, with good cycling stability in an acidic electrolyte.
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    Functional two-dimensional high-entropy materials
    (London : Springer Nature, 2023) Nemani, Srinivasa Kartik; Torkamanzadeh, Mohammad; Wyatt, Brian C.; Presser, Volker; Anasori, Babak
    Multiple principal element or high-entropy materials have recently been studied in the two-dimensional (2D) materials phase space. These promising classes of materials combine the unique behavior of solid-solution and entropy-stabilized systems with high aspect ratios and atomically thin characteristics of 2D materials. The current experimental space of these materials includes 2D transition metal oxides, carbides/carbonitrides/nitrides (MXenes), dichalcogenides, and hydrotalcites. However, high-entropy 2D materials have the potential to expand into other types, such as 2D metal-organic frameworks, 2D transition metal carbo-chalcogenides, and 2D transition metal borides (MBenes). Here, we discuss the entropy stabilization from bulk to 2D systems, the effects of disordered multi-valent elements on lattice distortion and local electronic structures and elucidate how these local changes influence the catalytic and electrochemical behavior of these 2D high-entropy materials. We also provide a perspective on 2D high-entropy materials research and its challenges and discuss the importance of this emerging field of nanomaterials in designing tunable compositions with unique electronic structures for energy, catalytic, electronic, and structural applications.