Synthesis of stable titanium carbide MXene nanocomposites using crosslinker nanoparticles for flexible supercapacitors: A novel and cost-effective approach

Abstract

This study presents a novel and cost-effective silver nanoparticles (AgNPs)-based cross-linking approach to synthesize AgNPs-decorated reduced graphene oxide (Ag@RGO) and its stable nanocomposites (NCs) with titanium carbide MXene for flexible supercapacitors (SCs). MXene/Ag@RGO NCs showed enhanced electrochemical performance compared to individual MXene. The electrostatic interactions between positively charged AgNPs@RGO and negatively charged MXene stabilized the assembly of 2D layers. Moreover, the presence of AgNPs played a crucial role in maintaining an optimal distance between the layers of two-dimensional (2D) MXene. This distance helped to prevent restacking of the MXene layers and ensured the interlayer ionic flow unimpeded, promoting efficient charge transport. In conclusion, the stable self-assembly of these 2D-2D structures holds significant potential for high-performance supercapacitor (SC) electrodes. The prepared NCs demonstrated specific capacitance (Csp) of ∼630 F/g which is 9.6 and 3.5 times better than pure MXene and MXene/RGO, respectively, along with only a 0.12% decrease in Csp after 1000 C V cycles (1.97% decrease after 5000 GCD cycles). Overall, this study proposes an interesting idea to explore stabilized nanocomposite structures for next-generation flexible SCs.