High-Entropy 2D Carbide MXenes

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides and nitrides, known as MXenes, are a fast-growing family of 2D materials. MXenes 2D flakes have n + 1 (n = 1 – 4) atomic layers of transition metals interleaved by carbon/nitrogen layers, but to-date remain limited in composition to one or two transition metals. In this study, through the use of four transition metals, we report the synthesis of multi-principal element high-entropy M₄C₃T_x MXenes. Specifically, we introduce two high-entropy MXenes, TiVNbMoC₃T_x and TiVCrMoC₃T_x, as well as their precursor TiVNbMoAlC₃ and TiVCrMoAlC₃ high-entropy MAX phases. We used a combination of real and reciprocal space characterization (x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscopy) to establish the structure, phase purity, and equimolar distribution of the four transition metals in high-entropy MAX and MXene phases. We use first-principles calculations to compute the formation energies and explore synthesizability of these high-entropy MAX phases. We also show that when three transition metals are used instead of four, under similar synthesis conditions to those of the four-element MAX phase, two different MAX phases can be formed (i.e. no pure single-phase forms). This finding indicates the importance of configurational entropy in stabilizing the desired single-phase high-entropy MAX over multiphases of MAX, which is essential for the synthesis of phase-pure high-entropy MXenes. The synthesis of high-entropy MXenes significantly expand the compositional variety of the MXene family to further tune their properties, including electronic, magnetic, electrochemical, catalytic, high temperature stability, and mechanical properties.