MXene's tour de force

Is there anything MXene materials can't do?

Since the discovery of a large new family of two-dimensional materials by Drexel University researchers in 2011, continued exploration has revealed their exceptional ability to store energy, block electromagnetic interference, purify water and even ward off bacteria. And, as recent research now suggests, MXenes are also very durable—the strongest material of its kind, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances.

The finding, presented by researchers at Drexel and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, shows that MXenes rate the highest among two-dimensional materials produced by solution processing—the standard method for making scalable, practically useful materials in the lab—in a measure called "elastic modulus."

In a side-by-side comparison with graphene oxide or reduced graphene oxide, promising new materials that are already being used to add strength to rubber and polymers, a flake of the MXene titanium carbide proved to be about 50 percent stiffer.