Metal oxide/MXene nanocomposites for supercapacitor and photocatalytic applications: A review

Abstract MXenes are quickly intensifying family of two-dimensional transition metal carbides/nitrides, that have gained significant attention for its metallic conductivity, tunable surface terminations, and hydrophilic morphology. This review provides an overview of the significant synthesis methods of metal oxide/MXene nanocomposites and speaks of their improved performance in photocatalytic systems and supercapacitors. The metal oxides like CuO, Cu 2 O, ZnO and NiO anchored to MXene sheets exhibit enhanced charge transport, interfacial contact, and active-site accessibility. Electrochemical experiments have been reported to indicate that NiO/MXene nanocomposites provide very high specific capacitance of 770C g −1 with outstanding cycling stability (>97 % retention). Photocatalytic systems such as CuO/MXene and ZnO/MXene have much better degradation efficiencies, 90 % of methylene blue degradation in 80 min and over 90 % of methyl orange degradation in the presence of visible light and solar energy respectively. These improvements are attributed to the good band alignment, fast separation of electrons and holes, and heterojunction interfaces. In general, metal oxide/MXene nanocomposites have a high supercapacitor efficiency and photocatalytic environmental remediation potential.