Diverse Applications of MXene

Composites for Electrochemical Energy

Storage

Muhammad Saleem Ashiq, Aqsa Iqbal, Javeria Shoukat, Anila,

Samia Kausar, Komal Rizwan, and Ataf Ali Altaf

Abstract Making composites has been a popular method in recent years for creating
durable and adaptable materials. MXenes are regarded as ideal prospects to synthe-
size the multifunctional composites because of their two-dimensional morphology,
exceptional flexibility, and layered structure that has sparked rise in research of
MXene-based composites. Until now, MXenes have been mixed with a variety of
materials, e.g., polymers, metal oxides, and carbon nanotubes, to create several
unique composites. MXenes have a wide range of interesting mechanical, electrical,
magnetic, and electrochemical characteristics because of their adaptable chemistries.
First used as supercapacitors, they serve as high-performance electrode material for
the sodium-ion and lithium–sulfur batteries. MXenes and MXene-based composites
are being utilized in storing energy.

Keywords MXenes · MXene composites · Energy storage · Batteries ·

Supercapacitors · Electrochemical

1 Introduction

In the last fifteen years after the synthesis of the excellent physical properties of
single-layer graphene, 2D and 3D nanomaterials have been studied intensely (Rizwan
et al. 2022a, b, c; Rasheed et al. 2020a, b, 2021a, b, 2022; Shakeel et al. 2022;
Bilal et al. 2022). Because of its unique physical properties, new dimensions in the
research of 2D materials were developed and this interest led to the synthesis of
boron nitride, metals dichalcogenide, and a large number of novel two-dimensional
materials (Zhang 2015). Despite the fact that several of these 2D materials continue

M. S. Ashiq · A. Iqbal · J. Shoukat · Anila · A. A. Altaf (B)

Department of Chemistry, University of Okara, Okara, Pakistan
e-mail: atafali_altaf@uo.edu.pk
S. Kausar
Department of Chemistry, University of Gujrat, Hafiz Hayat Campus, Gujrat 50700, Pakistan
K. Rizwan
Department of Chemistry, University of Sahiwal, Sahiwal 57000, Pakistan

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023 173
K. Rizwan et al. (eds.), Handbook of Functionalized Nanostructured MXenes, Smart
Nanomaterials Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2038-9_11
174 M. S. Ashiq et al.

to remain in the interest of academicians but the others have glared for the atten-
tion of the audience because of their interesting properties that led to their prac-
tical applications. The nitrides and carbides of the transition metals are termed as
MXenes, pronounced as “maxenes” and this is a rapidly growing class of 2D mate-
rials (Gogotsi and Anasori 2019). The 2D materials, i.e., transition metals carbide,
nitrides, and carbonitrides commonly known as MXenes, were first reported in the
year 2011 (Ti3 C2 Tx ) and they have been extensively synthesized in the last decade
(Li et al. 2020). Top-down etching process is commonly employed to synthesize
MXenes and the layered ternary MAX phase is used as precursors. The term MAX
phase is usually used for various kinds of metal nitrides and carbides that follow the
formula of Mn+1Axn (Xiao et al. 2020). This is a three-dimensional structure of the
crystal made by bonding and the stacking of two-dimensional layered structures. In
this, the symbol “M” represents transition metals while “A” is a main group element
(mostly group 13 and group 14) and the symbol “X” may be C or N whereas n = 1–4
(Wei et al. 2021). MXenes are used in many sensor technologies such as biological,
chemical, mechanical, and the optical sensors. These have high electrical conduc-
tivity, large specific surface area (Anayee et al. 2020), and water dispersibility of the
MXenes are included in their excellent features that constitute the crucial attributes
of sensor materials. In addition to high electrical conductivity, the MXenes preferred
to attain low noise in sensory response. Consequently these properties revealed that
MXenes are extremely promising substitute sensor materials to attain high sensi-
tivity, least detectable amount, and extremely low limit of detection of analytes in
the sensor applications. Conclusively, water dispersibility of the MXenes expedite
modification treatments and ecofriendly fabrication consequently MXenes are further
helpful in processing. (Ho et al. 2021). Additionally, MXenes and their composites
have extensive applications with promising performance in energy storing devices
such as supercapacitors (Yang et al. 2019), rechargeable lithium-, potassium- and
sodium-ion batteries (Sun et al. 2018), conductive films (Zhang and Nicolosi 2019),
electromagnetic interference shielding (Shahzad et al. 2016), coating such as antibac-
terial (Shahzad et al. 2016), wastewater treatment (Zhang et al. 2016), photothermal
conversion (Lin et al. 2017a, b), hydrogen storage devices (Ran et al. 2017), etc.

2 MXene Composites

Fabricating composites are gaining interest in the development of versatile and

stable materials in the current years. MXenes are recognized as excellent mate-
rials to synthesize the multifunctional composites because of their two-dimensional
morphology, good flexibility, and layered structures. MXenes are considered as
outstanding candidates for the synthesis of multifunctional composites, which has
boosted importance for the study and research of MXene composites. A large number
of novel composites have been synthesized by combination of various materials such
as metal oxides, carbon nanotubes and polymers with MXenes (Zhan et al. 2020).
To enhance the storage properties, it can be achieved by the introduction of guest
Diverse Applications of MXene Composites for Electrochemical … 175

Fig. 1 Synthesis of MXene composites

inorganic nanostructures to the MXene. It is very important to mention that (hydro-

) solvothermal and calcination procedures are employed to synthesize the MXene
nanostructures composite (Fig. 1) (Zhang et al. 2020).

a. Calcination Method

Morphologies and crystal structures are influenced by the calcination temperature

of MXene. Thermodynamically metastable MXenes can become more stable and
densified transition metals oxide composite if they are subjected to calcination at
certain temperature. It is worth mentioning to note that at 500 °C under argon atmo-
sphere, if cupric nitrate is heated on the surface of Ti3 C2 Ti3 C2 /TiO2 /CuO, ternary
nanocomposite can be synthesized (Zhang et al. 2018). In this process, The Ti3 C2 was
partly thermal-transformed into TiO2 whereas cupric nitrate entirely decomposed to
the CuO (Zhang et al. 2020).

b. (Hydro-)solvothermal Method

The hydro-solvothermal method is an excellent method to synthesize the MXenes

nanostructure composites having higher crystallinity, aside from calcination. Pan and
colleagues synthesized Ti3 C2 /CuS composite that is a sandwich shaped composite
by reaction of thioacetamide, Cu(NO3 )2 ·3H2 O and Ti3 C2 powders in the solution of
ethylene glycol for 9 h at 150 °C (Pan et al. 2019). The Cu2+ ions are attracted by
the negatively charged Ti3 C2 surface that forms the composite having homogeneity
by the treatment, i.e., (hydro-) solvothermal because of electrostatic interactions.
Nonetheless, there is still a need for development of outstanding methods having
maximum control of the size, shape, and crystallinity of the guest species (Zhang
et al. 2020).

2.1 Applications of MXene Composites

The excellent characteristics of MXenes enable them with many intriguing electronic,
mechanical, electrochemical, and magnetic properties. There is a great flexibility of
MXenes with their layered structures and two-dimensional morphology that make it
quiet convenient for MXenes to develop composites with other material, which offers
176 M. S. Ashiq et al.

a possibility to merge the excellent properties of various materials in a complementary

way. Thus, MXenes and their composites have gained much attraction in research
interest because of their great promising applications in various areas. MXenes and
composites have gained interest because of their applications in storage of energy
such as high-performance electrode material for batteries such as LiS (Liang et al.
2015; Xie et al. 2014), sodium ion (Wang et al. 2015; Xie et al. 2016), and in
supercapacitors (Yan et al. 2017). In the recent year they are being used in many
environmental fields. They can be employed in many fields, e.g., they can be used
as excellent catalysts for electrochemical or photocatalytic water splitting (Cheng
et al. 2019; Guo et al. 2016), they can be used for reduction of carbon dioxide (Ye
et al. 2018), they can also be used for the removal of contaminants in water as well
as organic dyes, heavy metal ions, nuclear waste, and eutrophic substances (Zhang
et al. 2016), they can also be employed to gas sensors and biosensors (Yu et al. 2015),
having outstanding results (Zhan et al. 2020).

2.2 Applications in Electrochemical Energy Storage

2.2.1 Ti3 C2 Tx /rGO

a. Supercapacitors (SCs)
Supercapacitors are energy storing devices and have both properties of quick
charging–discharging the capacitors and they also have properties for storage of
energy in batteries, which are intermediate the conventional capacitors and the
batteries. In the recent years, supercapacitors are gaining much attention for research.
If they are compared with the conventional physical capacitors and the batteries,
supercapacitors have properties of environmental protection, long cyclic life, and
large power density. Complex ion diffusion path is exhibited by three-dimensional
carbon but the two-dimensional nanosheets are capable of exposing the active
sites directly to electrolytes. These are based on two-dimensional nanocrystalline
sheets, thus they have more surface area, short ion diffusion path, and good electron
conductivity, which helps to make the supercapacitors a reliable source of storing
energy. Feng and colleagues prepared and characterized a micro-ultracapacitor by
MXenes/reduced Graphene oxide hybrid film (Li et al. 2017a). Its results revealed
good volume capacitance and area capacitance, that were 33 F/cm3 and 3.26 mF cm−2
at the scanning rate of 5 mV/s, it becomes exceeded the most advanced graphene-
based micro-ultrasupercapacitors. Whereas, as fabricated all solid state supercapac-
itor (that is abbreviated as ASSS) exhibited excellent electrochemical performance
at current density of 0.1 A/cm3 volume capacitance of 216 F/cm3 at (Liu et al. 2020).

b. Lithium-Ion Batteries

The lithium-ion batteries are a type of rechargeable batteries and it is a type of

secondary battery, it commonly works following Li+ ions between negative and
Diverse Applications of MXene Composites for Electrochemical … 177

Fig. 2 Electrochemical performance of Ti3 C2 Tx /reduced graphene oxide in the Li-ion batteries.
Reprinted with permission from Ma et al. (2018). Copyright © 2018 American Chemical Society

positive electrodes. In process of charging–discharging between the two electrodes,

Li+ ion is embedded then un-embedded. The research on batteries is gaining much
attention due to the increasing popularity of electronic devices (Goodenough and
Kim 2010; Goodenough and Park 2013). Three-dimensional porous MXene/reduced
graphene oxide hybrid films have been prepared by using electrostatical self-
assembly methods for Li-ion batteries (Ma et al. 2018). The synthesized porous
structure has applications that in the membrane electrode effectively promotes diffu-
sion of the electrolyte ions whereas the mixed membrane exhibited an outstanding
performance because of synergistic effect. At current density of 0.05 A/g, the specific
capacitance observed was 335.5 mAh/g. After 1000 cycles, the electrochemical
performance remained stable at the high rate because of the stable structures devel-
oped by electrostatic force between the two synthesized materials while there occur
no reduction in the capacitance (Fig. 2).

2.2.2 Co3 O4 -MXene/rGO (CMR) Composite

a. Supercapacitors

The cobalt oxide doped three-dimensional Co3 O4 -MXenes/reduced grapheme oxide

hybrid porous aerogel electrode has been synthesized. The specific capacitance with
optimal performance ratio was 345 F/g was observed at the current density of 1 A/g.
When the current density was enhanced upto 3 A/g, the electrode was circulated
178 M. S. Ashiq et al.

10,000 times and the capacitance retention remained at 85%. It can be said that the
prepared CMR aerogel electrodes exhibited higher mass-specific capacitance (Liu
et al. 2019).

2.2.3 Ti3 C2 Tx /Si Composite

a. As Electrodes

MXenes-based composite electrodes are being used in many energy storing devices
such as lithium–sulfur and lithium-ion batteries in the recent years (Ferrara et al.
2021). Xia and colleagues prepared pomegranate-shaped Si nanoparticles and
used conductive shell of nanometric sheets of Ti3 C2 Tx around it (Xia et al.
2020). This structure was synthesized by self-assembling of MXenes nanosheet
on Silicon nanoparticles and then its coating was done using PMMA. The strong
type of interfacial interaction between the MXenes sheets and methyl methacrylate
functionalization were exfoliated by sonication and etching.

2.2.4 T3 C2 TX /PMMA Composite

a. Electrocatalysts

Among the commercially available devices for storage of stationary energy, the Vana-
dium redox flow batteries are commercially stationary storage devices and have many
advantages such as levelized cost of energy and excellent durability of more than
104 cycles. The improvements in electrochemical performance are very crucial for
the greater market because of low volumetric energy density. Nowadays, the elec-
trodes based on MXenes are being employed as electrocatalyst for Vanadium redox
flow batteries (Wei et al. 2020). The T3 C2 TX flakes can be obtained by exfoliation
and etching, and can be utilized for decorating of the PMMA particles’ surface. The
prepared composites were then annealed for producing the hollow spherical MXene
and these were loaded by the process of dipping in graphite felts. For evaluation of
electro-catalytic properties, the prepared electrodes were electrochemically analyzed
by using cyclic voltammetry. The results revealed that the synthesized material was
superior than that observed for the system based on carbon nanoparticles (Wei et al.
2020).

2.2.5 V2 CTx MXene/Composite

a. Zinc-Ion Batteries

To generate high-performance active electrode materials, MXenes may be oxidized

with various 2D transition metals carbide/nitride. By controlling temperature and
heating rates, researchers were able to create micro sized nano-porous arrays of
Diverse Applications of MXene Composites for Electrochemical … 179

V2 O5 with adjustable morphology out of V2 CTx MXene (Tian et al. 2020). Gel
zinc-ion batteries may benefit from this material’s high cathode capacity, which has
been measured at 358.7 mAh/g after 400 cycles. Results revealed that high efficiently
MXene derivatives may be envisaged as enhanced electrode material for storing the
energy, if additional metal-based precursors are used (He et al. 2020).

2.2.6 Ti3 C2 Tx /Carbon Nanofiber (CNF) Composite

a. Batteries

Lin and colleagues prepared LiB anode from Ti3 C2 Tx /carbon nanofiber hybrid
particles (Lin et al. 2015). Carbon nanofibers have the characteristics to enhance
the electronic transportation as well as to decrease contact resistance between the
MXene particles. Higher reversible capacity of 320 mAh/g was shown by synthe-
sized Ti3 C2 Tx /CNF that is almost doubled as compared to pure Ti3 C2 Tx . Ren and
colleagues produced pores in the MXene flakes by chemical etching method for
obtaining enhanced open structures and higher surface area (Ren et al. 2016). The
porous Ti3 C2 Tx was obtained in this process and it can be fabricated in flexible type
films by using carbon nanotubes. The high capacity, i.e., 1250 mAh/g at 32 mA/g
was shown by synthesized porous Ti3 C2 Tx /carbon nanofibers composite electrode.

2.2.7 Intercalation of Cations in Ti3 C2 Tx MXene Layers

a. Supercapacitors

Supercapacitors prepared by materials based on MXenes are considered as an excel-

lent material because of their two-dimensional nature, large surface areas, and good
electronic properties (Hou et al. 2020). Firstly, Lukatskaya and colleagues performed
the intercalation of cations such as potassium ion, sodium ion, magnesium ion,
ammonium ion, and aluminum ion between Ti3 C2 Tx MXene layers by the aqueous
salt solutions (Lukatskaya et al. 2013). In KOH or basic solutions, the binder free
Ti3 C2 Tx at 2 mV/s could get the volumetric capacitance of 340 F cm−3 and it was
not degraded even after 10,000 cycles at 1 A/g in basic solutions, e.g., KOH. These
results opened new areas for the application and developments of MXene in the
supercapacitors. Among various MXenes, Ti3 C2 Tx is a mostly investigated material
for the preparation of supercapacitors (Lukatskaya et al. 2013).

2.2.8 Titanates/MXenes Composites

a. Energy Storage

The titanates are excellent anode materials because of their applications in storage
of energy due to their low environmental friendly behavior, interlayer gaps, and low
180 M. S. Ashiq et al.

working potential (Senguttuvan et al. 2011). Titanates are promising anode mate-
rials because of their structural characteristics and these can be synthesized by the
synchronous oxidation and then by alkalization from MXenes based on titanates.
The ultrathin nanoribbons of potassium titanate and sodium titanate were prepared
by oxidation and alkalization of HF-etched Ti3 C2 MXene and mixing it with solution
of NaOH/KOH and H2 O2 hydrothermally (Xie et al. 2020). A spherical shape with the
microporous structure was constructed from the randomly elongated nanoribbons, as
should be emphasized. For both SIBs (sodium ion batteries) and PIBs (potassium-ion
batteries), this structure improves kinetics by transporting large amounts of sodium
and potassium ions. For sodium storage, NaTi1.5 O8.3 , which had a larger reversible
capacity than Ti3 C2 and commercial TiC derivatives, was shown to be superior as
86 mAh/g. Furthermore, at higher current density of almost 2000 mA/g, 101 mAh/g
reversible capacity was maintained. K2 Ti4 O9 demonstrated reversible capacity that
was 81 and 105 mAh/g at 300 and 100 mA g−1 for storing potassium ion (He et al.
2020).

2.2.9 N-Doped MXene Sheets (N-Ti3 C2 Tx )

a. Environmental and Catalytic Applications

MXenes materials are the greatest choice for pollution prevention applications in
aqueous environments because of their activated metal hydroxide sites, large surface
area, ease of functionalization, high conductivity, and hydrophilicity (Wang et al.
2022). Many environmental cleanup areas have used the doping of elements with
MXene materials with improved redox, adsorption, functionalization, and other char-
acters such as heavy metal removal, water recycling, water purification membranes,
and antimicrobial techniques. Using nitrogen doped MXene sheets, Amiri and
colleagues created porous materials with large specific surface area such as 368.8
m2 /g with high porosity, the total volume of pores observed was 0.84 cm3 /g. N-
doping improved by functionalization avoids the layering of MXenes layers and
enhances conductivity, demonstrating high stability electrochemically that was based
on adsorption principle (at 1.2 V the avg. salt adsorption capacity was 43.5 1.7%
m/g and 5000 mg/L NaCl solution) (Amiri et al. 2020).

2.2.10 MXene-Ti3 C2 Composite

a. Fuel Cells
Electrolyte mobility and transport are significantly decreased around the freezing
point, making low-temperature electrochemical energy storage difficult. The detri-
mental impacts of lower temperatures may be mitigated by using various electrode
material such as MXene-Ti3 C2 with better electrolyte accessibility. For the purpose of
evaluating the efficiency of MXene-knotted carbon nanotubes electrodes even at the
low temperatures and because MXene would be oxidized at positive potentials, the
Diverse Applications of MXene Composites for Electrochemical … 181

asymmetric fuel cells were assembled using an aligned carbon nanotubes electrode
for the positive electrode while MXene-knotted carbon nanotubes composite elec-
trode material for the negative electrode. In comparison to MXenes-knotted carbon
nanotubes composites electrodes that are aligned with carbon nanotubes electrode
had a reduced capacitance at the 10 mV/s of 94 F/g, hence chosen to test further. It
is possible to increase the cell’s capacitance by adding a higher capacitance positive
electrode, as the lower-capacitance electrode had already reduced the cell’s capacity.

2.2.11 Mo1.33CTz and Ti3 C2 Tx Composite

a. In Supercapacitors Devices

Various MXene composite films were electrochemically investigated where 3Mo:1Ti

films have shown high capacitance. Thus, 3Mo:1Ti film could be chosen as nega-
tive electrode while an activated carbon positive electrode for an asymmetric super-
capacitor. Figure 3 showed that 3Mo:1Ti had the potential window of −0.5–0.2 V
versus Ag/AgCl while activated carbon has the potential window of 0.0–1.0 V versus
Ag/AgCl. So, the asymmetric systems have a cell voltage of approximately 1.5 V.
Constant current measurement and cyclic voltammetry were employed for inves-
tigating electrochemical efficiency of an asymmetric supercapacitor (Etman et al.
2021).
At current densities of 0.5 and 5 A/g, the discharge capacitances of 10 and 50 F/g
were shown, respectively. This device has a good capacitance retention of almost
75% while an energy density of 16–18 Wh k/g, after being run for long cycle at 5
A/g.

b. In Lithium-Ion Batteries

Fig. 3 The potential of

Mo1.33CTz and Ti3 C2 Tz
composite. This figure has
been adopted from Etman
et al. (2021). (This article is
an open access article
distributed under the terms
and conditions of the
Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license)
182 M. S. Ashiq et al.

To investigate the efficiency of MXenes film composites (3Mo:1Ti), they were

being used as negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries because of their
promising performance in the supercapacitors. Galvanostatic charge–discharge and
cyclic voltammetric techniques in potential window of 0.05–3.0 V versus Li+ /Li
were used to test electrochemical behavior for the lithiation and delithiation. To
get a steady electrochemical performance, electrodes were run firstly at 5 mV/s for
200 cycles. In this precycling, the electrodes’ capacity was increased that indicated
an enhanced interfacial area being accessed by electrolytes due to the opening of
structure on the electrochemical cycles. Previously, Mo2 CTz MXene showed analo-
gous behavior. Cyclic voltammetry at the potentials of 0.8 and 1.4 V (versus Li+ /Li)
showed the pseudocapacitive cyclic voltammetrical shape having redox pair (Halim
et al. 2016).

2.2.12 MXene-Knotted Carbon Nanotube Composite

a. High-Rate Electrochemical Performance in an Organic Electrolyte

To evaluate the electrochemical efficiency of MXenes-knotted carbon

nanotube composites, it was done in 1 M 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl) imide/acetonitrile, MXene-knotted carbon nanotubes
composites electrode showed at 10 mV/s a capacitance of 63 F/g and excel-
lent rate performance with a 56% capacitance retention from the 10 mV/s
to 2 V/s. For further enhancing capacitance, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium
bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide/acetonitrile (EMIM-TFSI) was then mixed
with lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (Li-TFSI) was mixed with the
(EMIM-TFSI: Li-TFSI = 1:1), so lithium ions intercalated in the Ti3 C2 that results
in an enhanced storage of charge. To decrease freezing point of electrolyte and
improving the low-temperature operation, the dissimilar cations present in the
electrolytes were also favorable (Korenblit et al. 2012; Lin et al. 2011). At 10 mV/s,
cyclic voltammograms were recorded at various potential windows while it showed
an irreversible sharp peak at potential lower to the −1.5 V versus Ag (Lukatskaya
et al. 2017).

b. Low-Temperature Operation of Full Cell Devices

It is very challenging to store electrochemical energy at the low temperature because
of reduction in transport and mobility of electrolytes near freezing points. This chal-
lenge can be overcome by the use of conductive electrode materials such as MXenes-
based Ti3 C2 material with enhanced electrolytic accessibility. At positive potential
MXenes are oxidized, thus it renders its use in the positive electrode material. For
investigating the electrochemical performance of MXene-knotted carbon nanotube
composites electrode at the low temperatures, the aligned carbon nanotube electrode
was used as positive electrode whereas MXene-knotted carbon nanotube composite
electrode was employed as negative electrode in the asymmetric full cells. The results
revealed that capacitance of the aligned carbon nanotube electrodes (94 F/g at 10
Diverse Applications of MXene Composites for Electrochemical … 183

mV/s) was lower than capacitance showed by the MXene-knotted carbon nanotube
composites electrode (~130 F/g at 10 mV/s). Lower-capacitance electrode limited the
capacitance of cell while aggregate capacitance could be enhanced by using higher
capacitance positive electrode. In the full cells, cyclic voltammograms showed some
reversible redox peaks were also present that negligibly decrease capacitance when
the scan rate was enhanced to 500 mV/s from 50 mV/s. Furthermore, after 8000
cycles a capacitance retention of 90% was shown by the cell that revealed its good
stability (Lukatskaya et al. 2017).

2.2.13 2D MXene-Based Composites in Metal-Ion Batteries

a. Lithium-Ion Batteries
Composites based on MXenes nanosheets have shown stable properties for storing
lithium. Because of high conductivity of MXenes nanosheet, at interface it enables
reversible ion and the electron transport. It also prevents active sites of nanostruc-
tures from aggregation during the process of intercalation and deintercalation as the
underlying substrates. Liu and colleagues reported the novel and simple procedure for
self-assembling the transition metal oxide nnanostructures such as TiO2 nanorods and
SnO2 nanowires on the surface of Ti3 C2 MXenes (Liu et al. 2018). By minimizing
the surface energy, the transition metal oxide can automatically self-assemble via
van-der-Waals interactions on MXenes’ surface flakes whereas the transition metal
oxides nanostructures and the MXenes flakes were mixed in the tetrahydrofuran. So,
the micelle-like hetero-structures could be synthesized. The resulting transition metal
oxides/MXenes composites has shown good electrochemical characteristics for their
use in lithium-ion batteries that attributes to promising synergistic effects between
the two building blocks. Scientists reported that transition metal oxides/MXenes
material can synthesize the energy electrodes materials for being employed in the
lithium-ion batteries (Du et al. 2016). At high rates, outstanding long cycle lifetime
for lithium storage can be achieved by metals such as silver (Zou et al. 2016). The
optimization of electrode architecture helps to further enhance the specific capacity
while combining carbon nanofibers or carbon nanotubes with porous MXenes sheets
can result in enhancing lithium-ion capacity (Nan et al. 2021).

2.2.14 MXenes-Based Composites for Sodium/Potassium-Ion Batteries

a. Sodium Storage of the MXenes/Carbon Composites

The carbon nanotubes have low resistance, 1D structure, greater surface area, high
mechanical strength, and carry higher current density. The porous 2D Ti3 C2 TX was
synthesized at the room temperature by Ren et al. while to prepare the flexible films,
carbon nanotubes were added and they can be employed as electrodes in the sodium
ion batteries. The obtained results showed that synthesized material has excellent
electrochemical properties. The synthesized material has good cyclic stability and
184 M. S. Ashiq et al.

rate performance such as at 20 mA/g, it has volume capacity of 421 mAh/cm3 whereas
at the current density of 5000 mA/g, it showed the volume capacity of 89 mAh/cm3
(Aslam and Xu 2020).

b. Potassium Storage of MXene Composite

The potassium-ion battery is a new type of storage battery and it has many advan-
tages because of its efficient energy storage and low cost. The electrodes should be
conducive to the reversible insertion and electrolyte should be matched with it for
enhancing the electrochemical efficiency of potassium-ion batteries. MXenes and
their composite as a two-dimensional material has got much more attention due to
development of the potassium-ion batteries. Alkaline MXenes have been synthesized
(Kim et al. 2018). Its excellent electrochemical performance is due to its short ion
diffusion path, three-dimensional porous structure, large specific surface area, and
enlarged layer spacing (Aslam and Xu 2020).

2.2.15 Nitrogen Doped Ti3 C2 Tx MXenes Composites

for the Lithium-Ion Batteries

Theoretical capacity of Ti3 C2 Tx is just 320 mAh g−1 but these MXenes composites
have excellent electrochemical properties due to high conductivity (Tang et al. 2012;
Mashtalir et al. 2013). In the recent years, the doping of nitrogen in the host material
is recognized as efficient way for enhancing the performance of batteries due to
improved conductivity and electrochemical reactivity of the host material creating
extrinsic defects via process of surface modification (Bao et al. 2018; Li et al. 2017b).
The structure of Ti3 C2 Tx MXenes composite is just like walnut and it offers the
composite greater conductivity, gives flexibility and spacing for increasing inter-
layer spacing, and lowers aggregation of the red phosphorus particles that enhances
capacity during cycling. Red particles of phosphorus can enhance the conductivity
of composite of Ti3 C2 Tx due to the large reversible capacity (Zhang et al. 2019b).

2.2.16 MXenes/Polyaniline-Based Composites for Electrochemical

Applications

a. Electrochemical Properties of Supercapacitors

Polyaniline/Ti3 C2 MXenes composite is tested in a three electrodes system and it

exhibited excellent performance properties for supercapacitors. The results revealed
that the addition of amino groups in polyaniline to Ti3 C2 enhanced surface wettability
as well as electric conductivity and results revealed it enhanced the electrochem-
ical performance due to synergistic effect between Ti3 C2 and polyaniline. Wu and
colleagues utilized amino groups in the amino-Ti3 C2 as active site for reacting with
amine nitrogen of the polyaniline chains to increase the amino groups. It resulted
in further enhancing electrochemical active sites and the charge transport due to
Diverse Applications of MXene Composites for Electrochemical … 185

synergistic effect between the polyaniline and N-Ti3 C2 thus the electrochemical
characteristics the synthesized material was improved (Wu et al. 2019). In order to
further improve electrochemical characteristics researchers introduced an additional
component in the MXenes/polyaniline composite to prepare ternary composites for
using them in the asymmetric supercapacitors. Fu and colleagues synthesized MXene
Ti2 CTx /polyaniline composite encapsulated in graphene and used it as cathode mate-
rial, that showed enhanced cycling stability and better electrochemical properties in
asymmetric supercapacitor because of its synergistic effect between Ti2 CTx and
polyaniline encapsulated in graphene and robust hierarchical nanostructures (He
et al. 2021).

b. Electrochemical Properties of Sodium-Ion Batteries

MXenes/polyaniline composites are used as electrode material for various electro-

chemical energy storing devices such as sodium-ion batteries and sensors in the
recent years. It is very crucial to prevent MXenes nanosheets from agglomerating
and restacking for enhancing the electrochemical properties to store energy. This can
be done by introduction/addition of conducting polyaniline into MXene/PANI. The
first principle calculations systematically tested the electrochemical performance
and its result revealed that addition of conducting polyaniline in the MXene/PANI
composite not only enhanced electrical conductivity but also maintained high sodium
diffusion kinetics and strong sodium adsorption when being used as anode materials
in sodium-ion batteries (He et al. 2021).

c. Electrochemical Properties of Sensors

MXenes and polyaniline composite are being used as a sensitive film for the detec-
tion of low content substances, e.g., ethanol gas or NH3 lactate in the sensors. The
hierarchical MXene/polyaniline composites have large surface area and more absorp-
tion sites which gives a high sensitivity and quick response toward the low contents
substance. Li and colleagues synthesized the flexible Ti3 C2 Tx /polyaniline sensitive
hybrid films for the gas sensors which showed promising ammonia sensing char-
acteristics from 20 to 80% relative in humidity environment at 10–40 °C tempera-
ture range. Platinum/polyaniline-based MXene nanocomposites have been synthe-
sized to sense amperometrically the lactate and hydrogen peroxide while the synthe-
sized material showed low detection limits such as 1.0 μM. The bulk electrosensi-
tive measurements and integration of simulations via density functional theory of
polyaniline/Ti3 C2 Tx nanocomposite had shown greater electrocatalytic sensitivity
for ethanol gas as reported (Zhao et al. 2019).

d. Electromagnetic Interference Shielding (EMI) Properties

• The MXenes/polyaniline composites can be employed efficiently for appli-

cations in electromagnetic interference shielding properties. The lightweight
Ti3 C2 /polyaniline composite developed and it showed improved electromag-
netic interference SE of almost 23 dB while 1.5 mm sample thickness and
186 M. S. Ashiq et al.

the results revealed that laminated MXenes having larger specific surface area
showed commanding role for enhancing microwave absorbing capacity of the
Ti3 C2 /polyaniline composites (Kumar et al. 2019).
• Yin and colleagues developed the light weighted, multifunctional, and flex-
ible MXenes/polyaniline composites based on one-dimensional/two-dimensional
inorganic/organic continuous conductive network synthesized by Yin and
colleagues which showed an outstanding electromagnetic interference shielding
performance, i.e., SE of almost 35.3 dB and excellent electrical conductivity at
thickness of just 0.376 mm in the textile processing (Yin et al. 2021).
• Zhang and colleagues developed a flexible Ti3 C2 Tx /c-polyaniline composite film
that had 40 μm thickness while its EMI SE was 36 dB the results revealed
that mechanism of shielding altered to reflection dominated shielding from
equal shielding mechanism when amount of Ti3 C2 Tx in Ti3 C2 Tx /c-polyaniline
composite enhanced (Zhang et al. 2019a).

3 Conclusion

The diverse chemistry and surface area of MXenes and their composites offer many
valuable properties for the storage of energy. Due to their unique properties, MXenes
and their composites can be used in batteries, electrocatalysis, supercapacitors, elec-
trodeposition, ion transfer regulations, etc. They can also be employed to enhance
the performance and stability of the electrodes. In future, the study should focus
on energy storing procedure of MXenes and MXenes-based composites and influ-
ence of thermal and chemical stability for storing energy. More research on MXenes
and their composites will open more doors for efficient storage of energy such as
supercapacitors, batteries, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and much more.

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