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Multimodal Spectroscopic Study of Surface Termination Evolution in Cr 2 TiC 2 T x MXene
Abstract Control of surface functionalization of MXenes holds great potential, and in particular, may lead to tuning of magnetic and electronic order in the recently reported magnetic Cr2TiC2Tx. Here, vacuum annealing experiments of Cr2TiC2Txare reported with in situ electron energy loss spectroscopy and novel in situ Cr K‐edge extended energy loss fine structure analysis, which directly tracks the evolution of the MXene surface coordination environment. These in situ probes are accompanied by benchmarking synchrotron X‐ray absorption fine structure measurements and density functional theory calculations. With the etching method used here, the MXene has an initial termination chemistry of Cr2TiC2O1.3F0.8. Annealing to 600 °C results in the complete loss of F, but O termination is thermally stable up to (at least) 700 °C. These findings demonstrate thermal control of F termination in Cr2TiC2Txand offer a first step toward termination engineering this MXene for magnetic applications. Moreover, this work demonstrates high energy electron spectroscopy as a powerful approach for surface characterization in 2D materials.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1911592
- PAR ID:
- 10453756
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Materials Interfaces
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2196-7350
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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