Optoelectronic properties of Ti3C2Tx MXene transparent conductive electrodes: Microwave synthesis of parent MAX phase

Abstract Herein, we evaluated the structural and optoelectronic properties of Ti3C2Tx MXene transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) prepared from microwave synthesized Ti3AlC2 MAX phase. A mixture of Ti, Al, and C was heated at 1300 °C for 30 min in a microwave oven. We synthesized MXene by two different etchant concentrations. A 1.6 g LiF in 9 M HCl solution brought about a higher degree of delamination in MXene with an inter-layer space of 1.35 nm Ti3C2Tx MXene prepared from microwave synthesized MAX phase exhibited a lateral size of ∼80 nm with crystalline defects. We examined the effect of spinning speed on optoelectronic properties of Ti3C2Tx MXene TCEs. Increasing the spinning speed from 1000 to 4000 resulted in an increase in transparency (T550) (from 72% to around 94%) and sheet resistance (Rs) (from 2010 to 23660Ω/sq). A FoM value of 2.027 ± 0.163 was calculated from data fitting of T550 vs. Rs (R2 > 0.97). It is suggested that small sheet size and formation of defects are responsible for the relatively high Rs.