Radiation-Induced Self-Assembly of Ti3C2Tx with Improved Electrochemical Performance for Supercapacitor

As a new family of 2D materials, MXenes have already shown a broad application prospect in energy storage. However, the inevitable restacking of MXene nanosheets always limits their performance. Here, a facile and environmentally friendly approach is developed to fabricate self-assembly Ti3C2Tx MXene (named SA-Ti3C2Tx) via gamma-irradiation. The absorbed dose has obvious influence on the self-assembly of SA-Ti3C2Tx by changing the surface charge characteristics and groups to make the nanosheets assembled into large slices with different structure. At dose of 20 kGy, radiation-synthesized SA-Ti3C2Tx (SA-Ti3C2Tx-20) possesses the crumpled structure which exhibits larger specific surface area, enhanced conductivity, and larger specific capacitance, compared with those of original Ti3C2Tx. SA-Ti3C2Tx-20 also shows excellent rate performance and cycling stability. This study paves the way for the modification and assembly of MXenes with improved electrochemical performance.