Phys.org June 17, 2024
Due to their versatile tunable properties MXene flakes are used as electrodes in lithium-ion batteries and diverse applications, from energy storage to electromagnetic shielding. However, the local distribution of surface functional groups over single flakes and within few- or multilayered flakes remains unclear. An international team of researchers (Germany, France) introduced scanning X-ray microscopy (SXM) with simultaneous transmission and electron yield detection of individual MXene flakes enabling multimodal nanoscale chemical imaging with bulk and surface sensitivity, respectively. The Ti chemical bonding environment is found to significantly vary between few-layered and multilayered MXenes. Simultaneous bulk and surface chemical imaging using SXM offers a method well adapted to the characterization of the electrode-electrolyte interactions at the nanoscale… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Scheme of Scanning X-ray Microscopy (SXM) Setup. Credit: Small Methods, 14 June 2024