Synthesis of Chl@Ti₃C₂ composites as an anode material for lithium storage

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) titanium carbide MXene Ti₃C₂ has attracted significant research interest in energy storage applications. In this study, we prepared Chl@Ti₃C₂ composites by simply mixing a chlorophyll derivative (e.g., zinc methyl 3-devinyl-3-hydroxymethyl- pyropheophorbide a (Chl)) and Ti₃C₂ in tetrahydrofuran, where the Chl molecules were aggregated among the multi-layered Ti₃C₂ MXene or on its surface, increasing the interlayer space of Ti₃C₂. The as-prepared Chl@Ti₃C₂ was employed as the anode material in the lithium-ion battery (LIB) with lithium metal as the cathode. The resulting LIB exhibited a higher reversible capacity and longer cycle performance than those of LIB based on pure Ti₃C₂, and its specific discharge capacity continuously increased along with the increasing number of cycles, which can be attributed to the gradual activation of Chl@Ti₃C₂ accompanied by the electrochemical reactions. The discharge capacity of 1 wt-% Chl@Ti₃C₂ was recorded to be 325 mA·h·g^–1 at the current density of 50 mA·g^–1 with a Coulombic efficiency of 56% and a reversible discharge capacity of 173 mA·h·g^–1 at the current density of 500 mA·g^–1 after 800 cycles. This work provides a novel strategy for improving the energy storage performance of 2D MXene materials by expanding the layer distance with organic dye aggregates.

Key words： zinc chlorin aggregate; Ti₃C₂ MXene; anode material; lithium storage

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Yohan Dall’Agnese for reading the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11974129) to Xiao-Feng Wang, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Jilin University, the Science and Technology Development Plan of Jilin Province (Grant Nos. 20180414010GH, 20190201133JC) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (Grant No. JP17H06436) to Hitoshi Tamiaki.

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